RECENT COMMENTS
Eric S. Huffstutler on What is up with the Church Hill Post Office?
lanny on then it happens to you...
JessOfRVA on then it happens to you...
Becky Metzler on Updated! Guess what's happening on Mosby/Venable?
Mary on then it happens to you...
Sid on then it happens to you...
Becky Metzler on Church Hill Startup Tackles Insurance for Freelancers
Stolen
07/06/2011 1:45 PM by John M
Stolen 7/6/2011 from my Truck in Church Hill:
Sig Sauer P229 40 SW Stainless Steel Slide with night sights / Serial # AM48053
Toshiba Satellite L675-S7109 17” Screen Laptop / Serial # ZA345098K
Please Call James Flanigan if you see any of these Items (703)576-4958
TAGGED: crime
Why would you keep a gun in your car if you’re not in there? Come on man, now there’s another gun on the streets waiting to be used in a homicide/robbery.
Why on earth would you leave a gun and a laptop in a vehicle – anywhere??? How irresponsible, now we have another gun on the street.
Where did the theft occur?
I hope you reported this to the police and that no one is hurt because of your foolishness. I don’t even leave an umbrella in my car because of the number of car break-ins in Church Hill.
What a knucklehead. I really hope the police catch the thief before harm is done with the gun but I hope they don’t return the gun either. You do not deserve the responsibility of owning a gun if you are foolish enough to leave it out like this.
Errr – what is with all the victim blame going on here? Is it wise to have your gun unsecured in your car where it can be easily stolen? No. But who is ultimately responsible for the gun being on the street in the hands of a criminal. The criminal who broke into this innocent guy’s vehicle and stole it! Let’s place the blame where it is deserved.
Irresponsible? Hardly. This only happened because we have a bunch of thug criminals running around breaking into cars and stealing stuff.
Victim blame? The victim is going to be the person who gets shot with the gun, not this dolt who left this stuff in a vehicle.
As you said, we have a bunch of thug criminal knuckleheads running around. So it’s probably not a good idea to leave dangerous toys around for them to steal.
I agree the thieves are more to blame but please be smarter in the future. Know the risks and don’t leave gas cans by an open fire.
luke – the truck was also drunk, wearing skimpy clothing, and kind of slutty, sooooo… i think yeah, it was probably asking for it.
I don’t think anyone is suggesting that the thief is innocent and the victim is guilty. No, what’s being suggested is that a cautious person wouldn’t even consider leaving a gun (not to mention a laptop computer) in an unattended vehicle for a period of time, ESPECIALLY IN A NEIGHBORHOOD WHERE CAR BREAK-INS ARE A CHRONIC PROBLEM.
If you leave a gun in your vehicle in MY neighborhood and it gets stolen, I will call you a dumbass. Yes, I’ll hope the thief gets caught and spends some quality time in a correctional facility, but I’m going to blame you for your carelessness.
I work in I.T for a finance company. If I do something careless and some hacker ends up stealing the personal information of tens of thousands of our customers because of my carelessness, guess what? I get blamed! And probably fired! Do you think my managers will say “It’s not your fault, it’s the hacker’s fault”?
The important point here is that we are talking about a gun, not an umbrella. And while you are the victim of a theft, you are also the perpetrator of irresponsibility and mindlessness. If you own a gun, it is a special thing. You should know where it is at all times and secure it in a safe place. I hope we agree that a locked vehicle in an urban neighborhood is not considered safe. Equating the victim to the faulty logic of a promiscuous woman somehow asking for rape is flawed. No one wearing lipstick and walking down the street is a theat to society and certainly isn’t a commodity to be stolen. You left a deadly weapon (that is not used for hunting) in a place where it could easily be stolen. That is a crime of idiocy at the least.
You should look into a car gun safe. They aren’t expensive and if you’re going to leave a weapon in your vehicle in Church Hill, it’s the least you could do.
I don’t blame James. Things happen. You get comfortable and forget how close to sketch you live. I’m on 21st right in front of Jefferson Park. Came in exhausted last Saturday night from helping a friend with a house addition, and forgot to lock my driver side door. 7:30 Sunday morning, I came out to find a dude sleeping in my back seat. My fault totally, but like I said, you get comfortable and think these things are going to happen to other people, not you.
Matt, so true, but with a gun comes a responsibility. In your story a man got a warm place to sleep. In Jame’s case, we have another gun on the street and nothing good comes out of it. I am a gun owner and I take it extremely seriously. Things do happen…
Matt, Your minor forgetfulness is excusable because you didn’t leave anything of major importance in your car. But what if you had left a gun in there? Aren’t you kinda responsible for remembering that? Treat it like a baby. Respect it.
what is with all the new “handles” and people hiding behind the anonymity of the internet?
anyhow, i can’t help but wonder if this is the truck directly in front of my house that was also broken into last night. this one just happened to have it’s stereo ripped right out of the dash. if it was the same truck, they took a huge hit with that break in.
#16 – “teresa”, unless you plan on posting your last name, your address, and a photo of yourself, you are just as anonymous as “oldhick” and “hideyokids”. Yeah, people use “handles” on the internet; people also reheat their food in a fancy little gizmo called the “microwave”.
Teresa, please tell me you were being tongue in cheek…
You are anonymous in a way too since you aren’t using your full name.
Can we all just agree to disagree on the anonymous handles and stop dragging every topic into this? If you, Buddy and Laura Daab want to chat about this crap on Facebook, go for it. The rest of the community seems fine with anonymous posting. It is becoming very troll-like to keep steering every discussion that someone doesn’t have a decent rebuttal for into a discussion about this. Read the topic, if you have something to say about the topic, say it. If you disagree with another poster, tell us why. Use logic and state your case clearly and we’ll have a good healthy discussion about it.
I respect the opinions of a lot of these anonymous posters more than some of the non-anonymous ones because they actually add to the discussion.
I chose to use this handle because I quickly realized after posting enough times under my first name, that people might put two and two together and make conclusions about who I am. As seen in this thread, many people are irrational and “flame away” in internet blogs when they would never speak so freely in person. On a neighborhood website such as this, I prefer not to have my neighbors judge me based upon my rational and well-reasoned opinions regarding responsible gun ownership or any other topic for that matter.
I’ve commented on here just using my first name. As someone mentioned, sometimes a person just dont want his or her comments appearing in search engine results when a boss, colleague, or just anyone searches for your name online.
Of course, someone could have the rebuttal, “Well, if you’re worried, then don’t post it on the internet.” However, it is nice to give your input about some topics without fear of someone finding out you said it. Since the internet began, that was a perk in many ways.
Having done SEO at my job, I’d rather not every comment I put on here be found by my coworkers or even not-so-close friends.
Furthermore, I agree w/ #19. I just dont want certain people to know exactly what I’m saying about topics like this. I’ve heard about screaming debates in bars, which can just get really ugly, and I’d much rather not get involved, whether it be in person or through blogs.
As for this guy leaving a gun in his truck… well, i didnt even realize it was a gun. I just read “… slide” and thought something like a guitar was missing… I’m just not familiar w/ gun names or gun types at all…
I think he left it by mistake, but also might have just feel comfortable enough somehow to leave it. however, even if you’re comfortable doing that doesnt mean its okay to just leave guns in your car for the hell of it… (if that were the case) he couldve just been lazy…
Just think about a couple years ago, when a woman’s 10 yr old shot his 5 yr-old niece after he found the gun in the house.. its obviously not the same thing, but something like that happens when people don’t put a safety on a gun or keep it out in the open in a house…
Wow, I can understand why some people post anonymously after reading this post. Poor Mr. Flanagan has been victimized twice, once by theft many by words. I am sure he has learned a valuable lesson on both instances.
Does no one see the irony in the fact that only four posts above on CHPN (just above the cute little goat) is a story about a shooting in Church Hill??? Same gun? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, lock up your guns and be responsible.
I saw it. I even posted. Ironic and sad…
i wasn’t being tongue in cheek. i was noticing there were suddenly about ten new posters on a thread about someone getting a gun stolen. names I hadn’t seen before. and they were all attacking this guy for leaving his own property (no matter how irresponsible) in his own vehicle. it just was an unusual amount of people coming out of the woodwork to bash him. i could actually care less if you use a made up name or your own.
no, I don’t post my name and address. I’m not an idiot. i do however use my actual first name and i stand behind everything i’ve said on this blog. i’ve lost my cool one time which is far less then some of the people that post on this blog regularly.
although, i do have a problem with people using handles and then being complete jerks. we are neighbors. we might live next to one another and yet, we come on here and hide behind “WhoMe?” type names and this someone how gives the permission we need to be bullies and jerks.
as least by putting your own name, you may think twice about what you are about to type because it is attached to your actual identity. because at some point, you may run into a “Teresa” or a “Kevin” and if you choose your words a little more kindly or carefully, no one would have reason to judge you.
but back to the original thread…
The previous post makes no sense at all. Whether you go by Fred or Sally or makes no difference. It’s all anonymous. The reason everyone picking on this guy is because they care.
we shall agree to disagree. 🙂