The "extreme reader's digest condensed version" is:
Cops decide that a guy is suicidal. He's not, 4 mental health experts agree on that point including the one that turned him loose immediately upon being brought in for "evaluation". No charges filed of any sort.
Cops confiscate his 1911 Colt Commander. They leave behind his Thomson Center Contender and an old Marlin 30-30 levergun.
Cops won't give 1911 back. BIG court fight in progress.
Guy who wants the gun back explained that the cops saw and ignored the other two guns, but have grabbed this one. Cops say they didn't see any other gun. Guy has witnesses who know that the other two are easily viewable in the living room, and for sure the Thomson handgun was registered to him, dunno about the Marlin.
The question is, why would the cops lie?
This department is hinky in a lot of ways. Also a lot of other lying in this case. For as little as $25, you can get a 1911 "rough casting" with no serial number, less than 49% complete so BATF doesn't call it a "gun". If you finish it yourself, you have to add a SN, private individuals can make one a year. The point is, that Commander's parts could be swapped to a new frame and built up as a new gun for peanuts 'cept for some gunsmith's four hours or so, with the old Commander frame getting destroyed.
IF the rest of the Commander's parts aren't serialized, this would work - and provide a motive for theft by cop.
If the purpose of the gun grab was to actually prevent suicide, they'd have grabbed his other two guns equally usable for that task. Instead, they grabbed the "coolest" assuming the guy wouldn't put up a fuss.
He did. Bigtime.
Now, Joe Waldron on the WA-CCW list had an alternate theory:
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> The "less than 49%" is a stretch. There's a lot simpler explanation:
>
> One of the cops already has a Commander (and maybe a Govt Model -- the
> Commander slide & barrel will fit, albeit with a slightly extended frame
> at the recoil spring housing, I've done it myself many times). This
> way he has a spare top half....
>
> Why would someone want a spare top half? Most logical explanation at
> this point is all the attention being paid to ballistic signatures. New
> top half provides a different barrel, a different firing pin, a
> different extractor and a different slide. Throw a new ejector onto
> the frame and you've just done a 100% signature change.
>
> Not that a cop would need to alter the signature of a gun he owned.
>
> Simplest explanation of all: just like why a dog can lick his balls...
> because he can. He's a cop, he wanted it, he had an excuse to take it,
> and now it's his (with a little collusion from the evidence locker
> custodian).
>
> Joe W