ATF searches local’s home, who happens to be my friend
This will probably be in the paper tomorrow.
Reader, commenter, arfcommer, and friend Shoot-N-Scoot just called to tell me that:
*The ATF is at his house
*They’re asking if he has any machine guns
*They have seized his house pending approval of a search warrant
*Told him he was free to go but they were going to search his house
He did the smart thing and left. He also called his lawyer. He (like me) is one of those gun owners who meticulously follows the law to avoid trouble. In that situation, I, myself, would be wondering if I had all my I’s dotted and T’s crossed as there are a lot of technicalities out there. His only crime is apparently marrying his ex-wife, who has supposedly called the ATF and said he has machine guns. He does not have machine guns and is one of my friends who I discuss AR-15s with.
He asked that I spread the word. More details as I get them.
Update: Oh, and when he called, the first words out of his mouth were:
The ATF is here.
And the next words out of his mouth were:
They have some nice AR-15s with EOTech 552s
Only a true gun nut takes the time to admire the equipment being used in a situation like that.
March 23rd, 2006 at 10:40 pm
Scay stuff. Reminds me of Sam Kennison’s routine about how his ex-wife (wife?) put a hand gun in his luggage before he went to the airport.
March 23rd, 2006 at 10:44 pm
Any relation to Angel Shamaya?
March 23rd, 2006 at 10:45 pm
Nah, he’s an arfcommer though.
March 23rd, 2006 at 10:53 pm
Isn’t there some rule about making false claims? I’d be very, very irate at the ex-wife were I your friend, and this sort of false claim slash harassment would get brought up at any and all future legal proceedings.
“The crazy bitch filed a false report against me for no good reason” except in lawyerese.
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Lying to the feds is generally considered a felony. Just ask Martha Stewart.
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:12 pm
probably the ex-wife can hide behind ingnorance unless there are audio tapes laying around where she said “I will call the atf…:
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:45 pm
WTF?
why the hell didn’t they just wait until they had the warrent, before they tipped there hand by showing up? Then they could have arrived at 4 AM! Were they afraid that S-n-S might be tipped off and he was gonna flush that illegal 1919 down the can or something?
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:49 pm
First, scoot is a stand up guy. Second, he has violated no laws, that I know of. He has mentioned in the past several times that he knew his ex would do something like this (he has custody of the kids and she don’t like that). So, even if he were the kind to break the law (which he’s not) he wouldn’t keep it at his house or otherwise be stupid about it.
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:58 pm
I didn’t mean to imply he was a lawbreaker, I was questoning the ATF’s actions. If I was him and had my head together, I’d get a lawyer and high tail it back to video tape the search. For example, if the warrent says “machine guns” only, there is no reason for them to steal the computers so they can take it back to the lab and look for kitty porn. That, and it’s always nice to get the agent doing the poodle stomping on tape.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:00 am
The other thing that comes to mind is you will have blown Shoot-N-Scoot’s pseudonym if this ends up in the paper.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:02 am
Sorry, that wasn’t directed at you. I realized what you were saying and was just clarifying the incident. I told him to head to wal-mart and grab a tape recorder.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:03 am
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has ruled that once a cop is in the house, anything they find can be used against you. The warrants are written such that they include a clause like; “Illegal items”. That’s narrow enough to get a judge to sign and broad enough to allow them to prosecute you if you have an illegal satellite dish, for example.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:04 am
I don’t think his pseudonym is a concern to him.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:06 am
As my dad just said (since I called him, a former fed to ask what my buddy should do) they can’t look in a shoe box if the warrant states they’re looking for an elephant.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:06 am
Fourth thing that comes to mind (and just to cement my “misogynist” street cred):
You can get a search warrent on the word of just one person who is your estranged ex-spouse? WTF? The fourth amendment says “reasonable”, right?
March 24th, 2006 at 12:10 am
Oh, and speaking of ex’s, a buddy of mine had this happen to him:
He was still married, but it was going downhill and he knew it.
– He got home, went from his car directly to the unattached garage, closing the driveway gate behind him.
– He opened the garage and put on overalls that he kept in the garage and began tinkering on a mid-60’s car he was restoring.
= This was his pattern, his habit. He normally didn’t even go into the house until he’d seen she had gone to bed.
– Less than an hour later, two local police approached the gate and asked him come talk to them.
– Across the fence, they informed him that they were responding to a domestic violence call. His wife had called 911 because she claimed he had come into the house with a wrench and threatened her.
– He tried to explain that he hadn’t even been in the house. They were polite but insisted that he close up the garage and come with them. They arrested him with no proof except a statement from her.
At their divorce hearings, she used this as evidence to get custody of the kids and restrict his visitation.
There appears to be no limit to the evil that people will do to one another.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:21 am
Who ever said it is right, he needs to have his attorney there NOW!
They cant “seize” the house, they can’t enter the house without a warrant. Once they get a warrant, the attorney needs to be there to document everything they look at, touch, and take. And your father is correct, if they are looking for an elephant, they can’t look in a shoe box.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:25 am
I concur. Not sure if that happened. Been a couple hours now, and haven’t gotten a call.
Well, the atf oversteps their bounds regularly. They may not be able to do it but correcting them is probably not worth getting shot over.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:39 am
What they do, I guess, is effectively the same thing. Basically, they are probably surrounding the house (causing a huge commotion with the neighbors) and not allowing any one into the house or allowing anyone to carry anything out of the house until they get a warrant which allows entry.
Call your friend and make sure he understands he needs an attorney there now, while the ATF is there.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:45 am
[…] In an update to my friend and his visit from the ATF, the ATF just called him as I was on the phone with him and asked him to come open the house or they’d bust his door down. […]
March 24th, 2006 at 4:31 am
Honestly, if he has done nothing wrong he will be fine, my brother in law’s wife(soon to be ex-wife) had sex with him then called the police 2 days later and claimed he raped her. And yes they arrested him, and yes he could go to jail, and yes he will have a heck of a time just getting visitation even if he manages to clear his name.
March 24th, 2006 at 9:40 am
[…] Background here and here. Just talked to his girlfriend. And the updates are: […]
March 24th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
“siezing the house until they get a search warrent”
Yeah, my response would be, “Great, surround the house, but get the fuck out until you have it” (which it sounds like that is what he did)
Definitely get a camcorder rolling. Cops in general will lie like a rug when it suits their purposes. “Yeah, we found this illegal (insert item) lying in plain site next to the broken strongbox)”
This is a good example of why you DO NOT under any circumstances allow them to even look in the house without a warrant in hand. If they want to talk, go out on your front porch to talk with them, or even better, yell through your door that you will come to the station with your lawyer to make a statement.
Cops at your door are not your friend.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Forgot to add.
Friend of mine, who couldn’t hurt a fly, went through a divorce where his ex accused him of domestic violence, now he can’t own a gun.
March 24th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
[…] Saga starts here, then here, then here (which will contain the updates) . […]
March 24th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
[…] Can’t happen? Oh, no, it most certainly can happen, and DID happen to one of SayUncle’s friends. […]
March 24th, 2006 at 7:58 pm
I agree, no feds in the house untill you show up with the papers you need. “Any attempt to illeagaly enter my home will be met with harsh cosequences. Now, want a coffee while you wait? Or a beer?”
March 24th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
[…] Over at Say Uncle My Friend and his Visit from ATF Scoot Update – 2 Need Some Help (with fundraising) It’s a freackin’ scary country when hobbyist gunsmithing gets you raided and arrested by the ATFE. […]
March 25th, 2006 at 9:26 am
Unless HE wholehartedly persues filing charges against the ex-wife, there will be no charges filed.
My buddy’s ex-girlfriend(hasn’t been dating or seeing on over 7 years but shares custody with daughter) called the police on new years eve 1999 saying that he was going to blow up the city.
What made it worse was that he was on probation from another made up thing she did, so the police were able to walk right in and arrest him.
they found NOTHING, he wasn’t even drinking (part of probation rules)on one of the biggest party nights of the century, and NO CHARGES were filed against her. He sat in jail for 30 days with no charges, no violations not a word but “under invesitgation”.
BISHOP