Disgruntled Bear...

Den of the Beastly Bear

Hi Folks!

I'm a disgruntled Beastly Bear today...well, have been for a couple days.

Over the weekend I found out my Mother got a call from the police....let me explain.

My Mother had a long time boyfriend, and by long time I mean over thirty years. His name was Jerry.

Jerry used to work with my mom, and I really considered him my Step-father. Jerry was a Pontiac police officer during the '68 riots, was shot in the line of duty and eventually left the force for a job at the local natural gas company. The pay was better, and nobody shot at you! Through his contacts in the law enforcement community, he did remain a part time Conservation Officer.

Jerry started dating my mom, my junior year of high school and we hit it off immediately what with he having been a cop, and me wanting to be one.

She started seeing him not long after my accident and was there to help talk me down when it all became too much and I had my meltdown.

We shared a love of guns and hunting, fishing and the outdoors. We even started a home business J&J Guns.

He got the Federal Firearms License, I used my knowledge.

It was the ideal business, we got our stuff at dealer cost, and we could make a few bucks getting stuff for others.

When Michigan became a "Shall Issue" state, Jerry and I were among some of the first in line to get our carry license.

About 10 years ago Jerry bought a S&W 360PD revolver as a carry gun. It was a small frame, hammerless .357 magnum 5 shot. 

It's claim to fame was a frame made of Scandium with a Titanium cylinder. This created an ultra lightweight (11.4 ounces) compact carry gun.

Unfortunately these high tech metals made this a pricey weapon, carrying a $300 premium over a comparable stainless steel gun.

7 years ago Jerry had left the gun in his truck in my mom's driveway in a very safe neighborhood. The next morning, to his horror his truck had been broken into and his gun was gone!

The police were called, reports taken, serial number recorded. We all knew, in all likelihood he'd never see his weapon again.

We lost Jerry two years ago after a long battle with lung cancer. He passed at my mothers home, his daughter, my mom, my wife and I around him.

Estranged from both his son, and his brother Jerry left most of the guns he had not sold off to me. A couple he wanted his daughter and her husband to have, and the rest my mother kept.

So Friday my mother gets a call from the police, asking for Jerry. She explains that he is deceased and asks what this is about. The officer says they have recovered Jerry's gun, and they'd like to return it. If not to Jerry, then to his family/estate (which my mother is executor of) or it will be destroyed.

So my mother tells them to go ahead and destroy it!!!!

To say I was less than pleased would be an understatement.

So she says "Well I didn't know what crimes it might have attached to it."

I told her "Mom, if it HAD crimes attached to it...they wouldn't be returning it to you, it would be evidence.

You don't get those back usually. They probably pulled somebody over and found it on them, ran the serial number and found it was stolen."

"Well it's 'tainted' anyway, I didn't want it..."

"Mom, that's not a cheap piece of shit gun...those are well over a thousand dollars these days! If you didn't want it, maybe someone else did! Even if you didn't want anybody in the family to have it, you could have walked into any gun shop and turned it into $600 cash in a heartbeat!"

"Well I didn't even remember what it was...and there was no one here to ask." 

That's the little "you never come to see me" guilt dig, even though I do and we take her out almost every week.

"That's when you say "let me call you back", and you call me!!! You don't say "just destroy it"!!!"

"Well I wasn't feeling good, and they just caught me at a bad time..."

Oh for Gods sake!!!

"It's been gone 7 years Ma, another day or two wasn't going to make a difference... They didn't need an answer "right NOW"!!!"

"Well what's done is done..."

Arrrrrrggggghhh!!!!

As she said, what's done is done...would I have liked to have it back? You bet! Mostly just because it was Jerry's. He had tried talking me into getting one when he got his, but it was too much money for too small a benefit ratio for me. 

But it would have been a nice remembrance.

Be Well Folks!

Beastly Bear