I blame Michael Peeling of the Free-Holder for writing this STORY. All day I’m getting emails and phone calls asking why I haven’t linked to or written about it.
Frankly it’s the same reason I feel for CBSA officers in the bridge crisis. They’re stuck in the middle. I have a few friends in Law Enforcement; none locally; well maybe a couple locally; and I can tell you it’s not an easy job.
I have one friend who once had to protect a president of the United States and this president stood for everything that he wasn’t, but his job was to take a bullet if necessary. What a conundrum…..
I love using the word conundrum in a sentence too…..
Back to this story.
“A OPP officer’s gun and ammunition remains missing following the theft of a police vehicle Tuesday in Long Sault.
The unmarked OPP vehicle likely stolen sometime after midnight was found on Alice Street in Cornwall at 1 p.m. the same day, but the lockbox containing a gun, ammunition and other police equipment left in the truck was not.
The lockbox contained a 40-calibre Sig Sauer firearm, which was secured with three magazines of ammunition, handcuffs and pepper spray.”
First off Michael it should be “An OPP” as you always use “an” before a vowel. My next visual is from Casablanca when the Inspector shouts “Round up the usual suspects!” The vehicle was later found on Alice Street in the East End of Cornwall.
“If anyone has information about this theft, contact the nearest police agency, the OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or call Crime Stoppers at 613-534-4130 or 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).”
Any thoughts Cornwall?
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Gee talk about gun control I would think this would be a black eye for the people who try to enforce it.shame on you this should have never happened of all people….
Talk about improper storage of a firearm. Why was this gun left alone in the trunk of the car? Hindsight is a great thing and dictates that the gun should have been brought into the house for the night. 9/11, terrorists, radicals all come to mind. Are the OPP subject to the same laws we are? If so, charges, charges, heads gotta roll!
I find it quite strange that someone would break into a policewomans house in order to find the keys and then steal them so that they could steal the car. Breaking & Entering, Stealing the Keys, Stealing the Car, Stealing the Gun, Ammunition & Pepper Spray from the lock box (was it locked too or did they have to steal some other keys?), Steal the Body-Armour, Steal items of Clothing, etc., etc.
Are we being asked to believe this story? Or are we missing something?
The functionally illiterate “Gilcpig” criticizing a reporter for a typo is just rich. It’s clear he doesn’t have a clue how to use a semi-colon.
The fact that he didn’t want to write about a public safety issue such as this one shows he doesn’t give a damn if someone gets shot by a stolen police gun. Law enforcement isn’t an easy job, but this officer could have taken better precautions to store her gun. Let’s see. Why not store your gun at the Long Sault OPP detachment? A little extra security never hurts. Thankfully, the gun and bullets have been found, but not because Gilcig helped. Talk about lazy and biased. Having friends in law enforcement doesn’t mean he knows squat about what it’s like to serve.
And Paul’s comment ladies and gentlemen explains the free in the Cornwall Free News. 🙂
If this website was really about the free exchange of ideas, Jamie wouldn’t be censoring (I mean “moderating”) the comments submitted. I know people who have made comments that have not made it on her because Jamie had a problem with them. So why not get rid of the moderation feature, Jamie? Will you truly back up the name Cornwall Free News?
Same as you Paul, you know squat about serving too! Do you know what a semi-colon is? If it were a colon and in french, it would be you!
You’re right Ontarian, i’ve never been in law enforcement. Never said I was.
A semi-colon can be used to separate two related ideas in the same sentence, but it’s tricky to use them properly.
Your attempt to put me in my place with a joke doesn’t make any sense. I appreciate the attempt though.
The problem with reporting, and law enforcemnt and even politics, is “friends” — that and bloody relatives.
And although, in a small town, this may present problems for institutions (such as the press, law enforcement, and government), these should nevertheless act on behalf of the larger community; sitting on news, looking the other way, or practicing favouritism just undermines these professions and discredits their labour.
Sure it’s easy for me to talk — having no friends, and my kin being well behaved, or maybe just sneaky — but even if that weren’t the case, one might consider a change of calling rather than putting their integrity at risk and that of their colleagues.
Yay, they apparently found the gun and ammo in an undisclosed location. How do we know for certain this is true? This could just be some major PR and damage control now.
If this is true, someone is still running around with the uniform and body armor. As well as I believe pepper spray which I don’t think was recovered.
All in all, I find it a very interesting situation indeed. Someone breaks into a cops house. And almost unnoticed, steals the exact keys to the unmarked cruiser in question. Steals cruiser, takes off with the car, dumps it, keeps the gun and ammo. All the while the police saying they are not sure if they key to the box was on the key chain or not. Which now must be the case since the obviously got access to the box.
You would figure, like any responsible citizen out there, that if you had a gun locked in a box somewhere, that you would know EXACTLY where that key is at all times. Especially when the OPP try to tone down the whole issue by claiming after the fact that they can carry locked guns in a vehicle under certain circumstances.
Well I don’t know about anyone else, but I would certainly expect that one of those circumstances would be to know EXACTLY where that key is at all times! Says a lot about the responsibility being shown throughout this situation. I wonder if this OPP officer were to ever collect evidence, would they misplace that or “forget” what they did with it? Possibly causing harm to someone’s court case out there. This screams verses to me on that regards.
Honestly, I think there is a lot to this story we didn’t really hear about. Because I find this way too convenient of a story. In my personal “Freedom of Expression” opinion, I think this is someone that knows the officer in question. I find it rather convenient that a thief can break into an officers home (while the officer is there), steal that key, steal the cruiser, etc.. and they try to downplay it as a random act.
The average joe would be screwed if they did something like this. But yet again, the OPP will get away with it. Like they usually do. Don’t have a law in the books, make it up as they go along.
I give thanks to all the OPP who are there and actually doing their job with care, not the absent minded or negligent like this issue stinks of, or the ones crawling up peoples butts on the roadways trying to get tickets served during quota time, or the ones beating those they are supposed to be protecting (regardless of what the circumstances are).
This was one massive blunder, and yes, as far as I am concerned, heads should roll over this issue.
All that was taken from her house was the keys. She doesn’t wake up while her house is being broken into and robbed. If someone had something against her or cops they sure didn’t take advantage of the situation. The car gets jacked. Her cover sure got blown though and I’m guessing from all the excitement there was more at stake than a pistol. Inside job, departmental jealousy, love gone wrong or maybe a foreign agent was involved. Pass the popcorn. I do wonder if the gun was chipped and tracked real time by some big eye in the sky. I wonder what documents were also in the trunk? There’s way way more to this story…another Tom Clancy novel I guess.
Right On Prince!!! Theres way more to this story than anyone is saying. The Ottawa Citizen reports that the gun and three clips of ammunition were recovered. Still missing is the lockbox, handcuffs, baton, pepper spray, body armour, uniform shirt and pants. Police describe the lockbox as a 14″x 14″ metal box with key AND combination lock. Perhaps the key to the lock box was on the car keys. But ask yourselves, how did the thief know the combination????
Police will not release details. OPP & Cornwall Police continue to investigate. Dave Ross, Deputy Director, OPP Corporate Communications Bureau, Orillia says “this is an isolated incident and there should be no concern for the public”.
Dave….there never has been any concern for us!
whoa whoa whoa..
There is a combination lock on this box as well? Now this I didn’t know.
Seeing as there is the possibility of a combination lock, then there are 3 ways that come to my mind as to how the thief gained access to the box.
1 – combination was left on the box. (the most obvious, and I’m quite sure if there are special conditions about keeping a gun stored in a vehicle, then one of those conditions would be not to leave the combination entered into the lockbox, duh!)
2 – physical entry into the box by means of some tool – which they probably had quite a bit of time to do, but of course, we don’t know if the box was broken open or if it was intact.
3 – thief possibly knew the code – again, part of something more that we don’t hear about possibly.
All in all, still having a hard time stomaching what is being said in this story.
Grimalot, consider yourself educated!
It surprises me that NO-ONE has asked that fundamental question:
Was the firearm registered with the Firearm Registry?
Or are the OPP exempt?