Cops Confiscate Lakewood Lady’s Arsenal; Motive Pending

[Feuer Frei!]

Francesca Rice no longer serves in her country’s armed forces, but she brought a piece of the action back home with her.
It seems the Lakewood vet had stockpiled her Edgewater Towers condo with a home arsenal including handguns, shotguns, a sniper rifle — plus a Thompson sub-machine gun, just in case the pizza guy got fresh.
Her cache somehow caught the attention of Lakewood Police, who paid a visit last September. When they found Rice wasn’t home, they asked an obliging employee of the complex to open up the apartment without her consent. Once inside, they raided the gun rack, making off with 13 firearms worth around $15,000. The only problem: They had no apparent reason to.
When Rice kindly asked to have her toys returned, the cops acknowledged that the weapons were legally owned. But they refused to return them without a court order. And so Rice has filed suit in Lakewood Municipal Court.


So far, nobody’s doing much talking. Lakewood Police Chief Timothy Malley declined to speak specifically about the seizure, citing the ongoing lawsuit. He also declined to speak generally about situations in which Lakewood cops would be likely to seize property on a whim. Rice’s attorney did not return Scene’s calls for comment, and Rice didn’t respond to repeated buzzes on her apartment intercom.

SOURCE

[CptSimFreak]

Not surprising...at all.

[em2nought]

One way to prevent SWAT bustin' down your door and filling you with sixty or so bullet holes while your weapon is on safety.

[Stealhead]

Interesting I am wondering if some cop knew the woman some how and knew that she had some nice guns and decided to obtain them.

Seems to be the case how could they have known she had the stuff?

I have a friend that lives in Glenn Bernie, Maryland one night he and his wife had some friends over and one of the couples got into a heated argument and the cops got called.Now funny thing is even though my friend nor his wife the home owners where involved in any way the cops as they where leaving(no one was arrested) they asked my buddy if he owned any fire arms he told them that he did a Glock 22 they did not ask about any weapons upon arriving at the home at all yet when he told then that he did indeed own the Glock they demanded to see the weapon and then said that they where taking it.My friend of course questioned the reasoning to no avail and they took his gun.He had to go through the entire court order process to get it back he found out that the supposed reason the gun was taken by the cops was because the owner had "physiological" problems and he had to see a court ordered shrink to get his gun back even though he never displayed any such behavior nor where the police even at his home for any reason even related to his actions.Strange if you ask me.

Makes me wonder how common this is.

[Osmium Steele]

As common as citing a youth for a loud car stereo once per shift, guaranteeing the officer 4 hours overtime per ticket for showing up at the courthouse, only to find the tickets weren't contested.

Gotta love Chicago.

[NeonSamurai]

The police officers involved should face major sanctions, if not criminal charges. Last I checked police do not have the right to enter private property with out a court order, ditto for seizing private property.

[Stealhead]

I think maybe it does have something to do with the numbers game.If you ask any honest LE officer on the local or state level he or she will tell you that like many other industries the big whig cops stat everything out.

For example my friend from Maryland his cousin is a Baltimore PD Detective Sargent I have heard this guy tell all many of stories related to numbers games at family gatherings I have been to down here in Florida.In Baltimore it is all about number of arrests not what level(misdemeanor,felony)the arrest was but obviously it is much easier to bust a guy say for public intoxication than for selling drugs.So the guy that arrested 20 people and 90% of them where minor things like public drunkenness or public urination has done better than the guy that arrested only 5 guys but 3 of them may have been major felonies in a one month period.I suspect that if a cop needs to make some good stats (if he plays the brown nose game) if he is low he will find something to get a boost.So maybe taking a gun from a "crazy" is a good stat if you are low.

[breadcatcher101]

Well if she had a "submachine gun" I bet it wasn't full auto. Those run at more than 15k. Probably it was a semi-auto version and not a submachine gun.

Kinda like all these semi-auto "assault weapons", sounds dramatic in the news even they are nothing more than a military looking deer rifle.

If it doesn't rock and roll it is not a machine gun or an assault weapon.

As for the cops stealing her firearms I hope they wind up paying her dearly for their actions.

[Armistead]

If she was legal busting into her home will get her a payday. You can buy Thompson's replicas my guess is that's what she had, if it were full auto she would be in trouble, so it's obvious it's semi.

Sure NRA will contact here and lawyer her up...

[Osmium Steele]

Originally Posted by Armistead

You can buy Thompson's replicas my guess is that's what she had, if it were full auto she would be in trouble, so it's obvious it's semi.

Not neccesarily. Most folks who have that extensive a collection manage to acquire a dealers license allowing the purchase of full-auto firearms.

[NeonSamurai]

Originally Posted by Stealhead

I think maybe it does have something to do with the numbers game.If you ask any honest LE officer on the local or state level he or she will tell you that like many other industries the big whig cops stat everything out.

Oh I have no doubt, it may have also directly come from the higher ups. But do I feel that blame should travel upward (not downward).

Do not get me wrong, I have great respect for the boys and girls in blue, and have worked with them professionally in the past. But they must be held at least to the same standards as everyone else and I do not support the "blue wall". Police breaking the law should get hit with it to the fullest extent, especially as they are supposed to represent the law. Investing people with so much power always represents an issue too, so very easy to become corrupted by it.

[MH]

Originally Posted by breadcatcher101

If it doesn't rock and roll it is not a machine gun or an assault weapon.

.

Wrong.
It is assault weapon.
Machine gun if not RnR is not machine gun.

[AVGWarhawk]

It is written as a right to bare arms. There was no stipulation for how many noted. She has a nice collection. What's the problem?

[MH]

Girls deserve some fun too.

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by MH

Girls deserve some fun too.

They have the right to "bare" arms and legs and midriffs...thank God