Repeater
Regular Member
Fair warning. If you place your house on the market and you have guns in your homes, the police can come right on in and look around, pretending to be potential buyers. If they see enough, they might get a search warrant and come back. The Virginia Court of Appeals says that's okay:
Redmond v. Commonwealth (2010 Va. App. No. 2443-09-4, November 16, 2010):
Here's what they found -- and seized:
Those ATF (Special) agents sure are sneaky, huh?
Redmond v. Commonwealth (2010 Va. App. No. 2443-09-4, November 16, 2010):
The evidence showed that Eric Flagg, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, received information that appellant, who had a prior felony conviction, possessed firearms at his residence on Middle Road in Shenandoah County. Flagg also learned that the property had been listed for sale through a real estate company. In response, Flagg contacted the real estate agent for the property and said he was interested in looking at the house.
The realtor showed Flagg and Investigator Laura Clutz the home, which had three levels of living space. In a den located in the basement was a wooden gun cabinet with glass panels. Several long guns were visible in the case. Flagg also saw several rounds of ammunition in the case. The realtor did not ask if Flagg and Clutz were police officers, and the officers did not volunteer this information.
Subsequently, the police filed an affidavit to obtain a warrant to search the Middle Road residence for illegal firearms, ammunition, and related evidence.
A magistrate issued a search warrant for the entirety of the Middle Road residence on August 11, 2008, and police officers executed the warrant that same day.
Here's what they found -- and seized:
In the search, the police recovered several long guns from the unlocked gun cabinet in the basement den. During the search, police also observed on the walls of the residence’s den photographs of appellant posing with deer that had been killed. In addition, miscellaneous items related to guns and hunting were present in the den. The police also found a pistol in a shed adjacent to the residence. Two boxes of ammunition, a gun magazine, and some loose bullets were found in a kitchen cabinet. In the foyer, the police found a box of ammunition on top of a periodical published in January 2007. Men’s clothing, boots, hunting equipment, and a firearm were found in the closet of the master bedroom in the house.
Those ATF (Special) agents sure are sneaky, huh?
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