Hello!

My dad was in a story telling mode yesterday. One of the stories involved him and a buddy running away from home as 15-year-old kids. They got to Craig, Colorado before having car trouble. Local police picked them and the car up. In the car was a family members billy club and an old family sword. The two boys were sent home on a bus, but the items were never returned.

I’m wondering if contacting the Craig, Colorado police and asking about the items would even be worth the trouble? Or, are the items long gone? This occurred around 1964.

Thank you,

James

Those items are loooong gone.

You could ask, but evidence like that in a case like that? I would be astonished if they still had the items. Do you have any idea how large an evidence depository they would have to maintain to keep such items for so long? Craig isn’t that large a city and I suspect they’d have to rent half the buildings in the town to make it possible.

Thanks guys … I assumed they are gone, but I thought I’d get input from people more in the know than I.

Thank you,

Jim

The property storage in most police agencies isn't very big. Things are kept long enough for court, or until a sufficient time has allotted for retrieval. Items are then destroyed or auctioned.

With that said, back in '64. It wouldn't surprise me if the billy club and sword ended up in an officers personal collection.

Lol, that sword went home with a Craig cop that night!

We had to go thru our cases annually to find property we had collected and if it had already been adjudicated or not.
If it had gone to court and the verdict was guilty-evidence got destroyed (only guns had to have a court order for destruction).
(Good cops kept up with their cases and destroyed stuff thru the year as cases came up)

Anyone who was on light duty had to go thru the property room and try and get rid off stuff.

After my stroke I was on light duty for six months and that’s why I did. After going back to work it took my second TIA and they were waiting on the state to approve my medical retirement that I did it again…I got rid of truckloads of stuff. I’d bet anything from the 60s is long gone unless it was a murder case-all evidence is kept in til the offender dies.

quote:

unless it was a murder case-all evidence is kept

I got to see the murder evidence storage for St. Louis City. It was literally a mountain of plastic pallet totes stacked 4 high, several wide, and hundreds of feet long.

quote:

back in '64. It wouldn't surprise me if the billy club and sword ended up in an officers personal collection.

Either that or in the trash. Evidence is evidence, but it sounds like they were surrendered items that couldn't be taken back with them on the bus.

Murder and some rape evidence typically get stored forever (especially if there is a conviction).

...everything else is typically gone within sixth months to five years.

There is no way a sworn and a billy club have sat in a property room for nearly sixty years.

I doubt you get the items back.

Send them a bill.

but it brings up a great question.

what is a 'typical' policy regarding property confiscation not involved specifically in a crime.

for instance -- lets say a guy gets pulled over for DUI. has a machete and a .22LR rifle in the car. items not related to any violent crime but the items are confiscated.

is there a typical way to get the items back later?? i imagine it varies greatly by jurisdiction.

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quote:

Originally posted by Sig209:
but it brings up a great question.

what is a 'typical' policy regarding property confiscation not involved specifically in a crime.

for instance -- lets say a guy gets pulled over for DUI. has a machete and a .22LR rifle in the car. items not related to any violent crime but the items are confiscated.

is there a typical way to get the items back later?? i imagine it varies greatly by jurisdiction.

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Here the machete would be left in the vehicle and the firearm would be booked in as personal property they could pick up as soon as they were out of jail.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig209:
but it brings up a great question.

what is a 'typical' policy regarding property confiscation not involved specifically in a crime.

for instance -- lets say a guy gets pulled over for DUI. has a machete and a .22LR rifle in the car. items not related to any violent crime but the items are confiscated.

is there a typical way to get the items back later?? i imagine it varies greatly by jurisdiction.

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Those items are booked as “safekeeping”. We (by law) will hold them for 100 days unless the owner remains in custody. If the arrestee is released and doesn’t come calling within a week or so, we’ll reach out and ask him/her to come get his shizz. Firearms present more hoops to jump through, but we do our best to return them.

When I was working, I did what Black said. We didn’t leave guns in cars-ever. After you get out of jail and are sober(if that’s what you got arrested for) you go see the property officer…(his hours were M-F 8-5