Dont Do This

Next to safe gunhandling proper accountability and storage of firearms are habits that must cultivated. In my Army days it was drummed into us that when you sign out a weapon it's either in your hand or slung on your back, the only time it leaves your hands is when you bed down, and then it's in your sleeping bag.
 
I am always finding stuff in the road. One day I found an large Army ammo locker in the bushes on the side of the interstate. I tried to pick it up, but couldn't lift it. I opened it expecting to find ammo. It was full of Snap-On tools. Another time, we were set up at a gun show. There came an announcement on the PA, "If anyone found a rifle case on I-291, please turn it in to the main office." We all laughed. I-291 was 10 miles from the show.
 
Wow. I could add a few good ones to the list. years ago I was hiking through the woods with my 66-1 holstered on my side. I fell down a hill and later realized that my 66 was gone. retraced my steps and found it. LUCKY! On another occasion, my wife and I were snowshoeing up on the Grand Mesa and had put my M@P 340 in a fannypack. She unzipped it to get something out and didn't re-zip the pocket. We stopped for something and I found that my gun was missing. I retraced our steps and started finding debris from out pack. I eventually saw the slightest bit of the rubber grip sticking out of the snow in one of our tracks. There was probably about ten feet of snow on the ground. Many years ago while working as a police officer on Marthas Vineyard, I was carrying my 4" 66 in a breakfront holster. I arrested a DUI and had to fight with him on the side of the road. I got to the jail and went to reach for my gun to lock it up and it was no longer there. Left the jail and returned to the scene of the arrest. Found the Mod. 66 laying in the grass on the side of the road. Three times lucky!
 
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Marshal tom said:
Many years ago while working as a police officer on Marthas Vineyard, I was carrying my 4" 66 in a breakfront holster. I arrested a DUI and had to fight with him on the side of the road.
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You cops truly do not get enough credit. If you have to fight drunks in Martha's Vineyard, I can't imagine what goes on in Detroit, Chicago or Compton.
 
After some of the stories about finding high-end handguns, rifles, and shotguns this is a little mild but here goes:

I had been working at my FIL's house and then drove home. I couldn't find my work gloves and noticed the tail gate of my truck had been left down. I assumed that I had left them in the bed of the truck and they had blown out. So I drove back, watching the side of the road for the gloves.

About halfway there I saw a glove so I pulled over and picked it up. Well, it wasn't one of my El Cheapo work gloves but a very sturdy Carhartt reinforced leather glove. So I tossed it in the cab and kept going. On the way back, I saw its mate on the other side of the road so I had to retrieve it too. So now I had a pair of very high quality gloves, if a bit used.

A while later, I found the gloves I was originally looking for. I had left them in the Jeep. So for once I came out ahead. :o
 
I just took a video last week of a lady pulling out of Starbucks with a coffee on her roof. She made it all the way out of the lot and out of sight without so much as a spill.

I almost left a rifle in a rack at the range one time. Ever since then I am double and triple checking my guns before leaving.
 
Got a topper on leaving things on the car. Many years ago, my wife put our
son in a car seat out of the carat and on the trunk. I loaded the car via the back seats with groceries. She got in the car. I got in and asked where my check book was. Oh my its on the roof. She got back in, With my book. OK, Honey, where is the kid? Then wifes reply, OH ****....! To this day my fault.
 
Back in 83 or 84 I herniated three discs in my low back. Opted not to have surgery. Part of the healing process was walking and lots of it.
One day while on a walk in a residential neighborhood near the chiropractor's office I found a holstered revolver in the middle of an intersection. This was before I even had an inkling about S&W revolvers. It was a 6" Highway Patrolman. Picked it up and took it home with me. Placed an ad in the paper saying if someone could provide me the SN they could have the gun back. Two days later I got a call and the man gave me the SN. When he came to pick it up he offered me $100 for getting it back to him. I refused the reward. Just hope someday someone else will return the favor.
Once when archery hunting elk in a fairly popular area, I was waiting for my buddy to pick me up. He pulled up and I hopped in and down the road we went. About 2 miles down the road it dawned on me that I had left my bow at the pick up point. Back we went. Took me almost 1/2 an hour to locate the bow. That was the last camouflage bow I ever owned.
 
Value Priorities

Apparently the targets were more valuable than the M28. Back in the distant 50's my older brother put his custom fitted wet suit on the Vuxhaul Victor's roof while loading the boards, then drove off never to be warm in the California current again.
 
My SOP for a range session-indoor ranges only at present. A long gun in a case, a handgun in a large carrying case. When I end a shooting session I clear the firearm, leave on the shelf while I put away my other gear, then I case it. When I get to the car they go straight inside. I make a point of never putting anything on the hood or the roof.
 
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BC38 said:
The only thing I've ever left on the roof and drove away is a cup of coffee - but I've ruined half a dozen travel mugs that way :o
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Similar thing, I would place my travel mug on top of the nice flat light bar while putting the rest of the gear in the car. Drove out on the road passing the local Jr High, kids yelled at me about the cup & I retrieved it not a drop spilled. (did this more than once sad to say).
 
If that happened to me, I'd STILL be upset! That being said, I learned a long time ago to NEVER put anything on the roof of a car while packing things up. It cost me my best fishing reel.
 
Back in mid 2011 when I transferred to Highway Patrol we started issuing "electronic" tickets. We had a large cellphone/barcode scanner that the ticket details were entered into and a small bluetooth printer to print out the drivers copy. I kept my printer on the passengers seat in my car and walked back to the passengers door to print it, detach and hand to the driver.

One night I stopped a car for speed near the top of a hill about 20 km in either direction from anything other than the occasional farmhouse. The speed was such that I had no option but to suspend the drivers' license for 28 days.

I took the printer off of the car seat and sat it on the cars roof under the floodlight so I could see his personal details on the ticket to fill in on the suspension notice. When I finished I tore off the ticket and went back to the driver to give him the ticket and license suspension.

At the time my brother was dating his now wife. She lived in the principle city in our policing district, about 1 3/4 hours from our home town and around an hour or so from where I was stopped. My brother had been staying with her on his days off and was due to commence duty 0700 the next day. We had received permission from our supervisor for me to pick him up and take him home at the end of my shift that night.

I drove to pick up my brother and when he got into the car he asked "What's this"?

it was my printer which had got stuck under the light bar. Thankfully I had not had to do any U turns during that drive.

Now we have iPhones and the tickets are posted out after being printed at National HQ.
 
I left my checkbook on top of the car once. About an hour after I reported it lost and had cancelled the credit cards, it was turned in to the PD. Caught heck from the then wife.

Left my aluminum pad on the trunk of the patrol car. It got kinda skinned up when it slid off. I once stopped a woman who was driving with her purse sitting on the roof of her car.
 
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Growing up we lived next door to a couple who had Siamese cats. One day the wife went shopping in a city about 15 miles away. when she stopped at a light some people were yelling and pointing at the roof of her car. The cat was on the convertible roof, his claws dug in real good, and his fur nice and smooth from the wind. His catnap turned into an adventure.
 
This story was in the news a couple of years ago. A local county sheriffs department had members of its SWAT team go out to a range for a training exercise. Each deputy was issued an AR-15 type rifle in addition to all his other gear.

After a long day, they drove back to their department's parking lot and proceeded to unload their gear and take it inside. One deputy leaned his cased AR against the rear bumper of his car while he juggled and struggled with all his other gear. Thinking he had everything, he proceeded inside.

When the time came to turn in the rifles, the deputy realized his mistake and hustled back to the parking lot only to find the rifle was gone. I would hate to have been in his shoes!

The story was on all the tv stations. There is a happy ending. A couple of weeks later someone turned it in. His story was he saw it laying in a ditch as he drove by in his car. Evidently the LEOs were happy to get it back so they didn't question the story too much.
 
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