Like many, I was visiting family for the 4th in my home state and carrying while doing so. They live about 4 hours from me, so it's a decent road trip to get to them and back and for the time in the car I won't carry on-body for comfort (only while driving, I'll move it to on-body while pumping gas, going to th restroom, etc.). Leaving my parents house and heading towards the interstate, I very quickly got followed by one police officer. At a red light about 5 miles later I see 3 others pull up behind him, and as soon as the light changes they turn on the berries and cherries. Instead of pulling me over traditionally though, they pulled up on all sides of me, boxing me in. I've been pulled over plenty of times but this was vastly different. For the sake of the story I'll refer to the officers as PO1 and PO2 (the third and fourth I had very little interaction with):PO1: Sir go ahead and step out of the vehicle for me and keep your hands where I can see themMe: Yes sir. So you know, I am carrying a firearm in my center console and a knife in my front right pocket.PO1: Thank you for that information, let's step behind the vehicle and go ahead and raise your hands over you're head. My colleague is going to check you for weapons, anything other than that knife?Me: Not on my person sir, and I do have my concealed weapons license in my back right pocket along with my driver's license and insurance cardPO2: Alright we'll get to that in a minute, can you tell me what's going on with your plate right now though? (Points to my license plate)Me: (Leans in for a closer look) Everything looks like it's here, what do you mean?PO2: Well it's coming back as stolen from (other county), but it matches the vehicle you're driving. Care to explain that?At this point I realize what is going on, a few months ago some degenerate in my apartment complex ripped a bunch of registration stickers off cars and I filed a police report about that. Somehow that must've been reported as my plate being stolen. Anyways, I explain this and while they call the other PD to try to work it out PO2 goes in my center console and retrieves my firearm and walks back to his cruiser. I was watching very closely, because I've never been in this situation before and my firearm has never been in anyone else's possession but my own since I've owned it. Well in plain daylight, standing in front of his cruiser with his front facing traffic, PO2 removes my firearms from it's holster, drops the mag, and then points the gun straight ahead (not a safe direction, this is where traffic is filtering around the police cars) to remove the one in the pipe. He then left everything but the firearm on the hood of PO1's car while he went to his cruiser so he could run the serial number I guess. All this while PO1 is talking to me, explaining that they can see it was a mistake that this was reported as stolen and they're attempting to clear it up for me so I have a smooth ride home. Suddenly the third and fourth officer (who had just been standing behind the other squad cars and talking) jumped in their cars, flipped a U-turn and sped off. PO1 stepped away from me and listened into his radio for a moment, then said to me "I got another call I have to go to, the other officer is securing your firearm and working to get this cleared up for you, just stay put and he'll talk to you shortly" and then he ran to his car and attempted the same U-turn as the other officers. Except my holster, loaded mag, and +1 round were sitting on his hood and got flung off into the middle of the road. I was smart enough not to get up and yell or anything, the officer noticed on his own and got out to secure it all again and pass it off to PO2. He then sped off and it was just me and PO2. I'm in my driver's side right now just waiting, when I look up and see PO2 running towards my car with my holstered firearm in his hand. He essentially shoved it into my hands, said "we got a call about an actual stolen vehicle, I have to go. You're all cleared up to drive though, thank you for your cooperation and have a good day" ,then turned on his heel and ran back to his car to drive off. I was standing there with a firearm in my hands, that as far as I knew at this point was still loaded, and he had just turned his back entirely on me to get back in his vehicle.After he left I checked over my gear, the firearms itself was fine obviously but the mag has a bad gash on the baseplate and my +1 round is missing. Looked over the road for it but it was nowhere to be seen. I gave up after 5 minutes, took a round from a spare mag and went on with my day.To recap, officer cleared my firearm in an unsafe direction, tried to drive away with a mag, holster, and loose bullet sitting on his hood, and turned his back on me right after he put a potentially loaded firearm in my hands. It felt strange, I'm not attempting to criticize the officers competency as they were very polite and professional with me and did everything to help me and clear up my situation. And I have no idea about the situation that caused them to have to leave so quickly, I only have the partial story. Just curious, has anyone else experienced what they would call a 'lapse in judgement' on the part of police officers when it comes to firearms? What would have happened if there had been a ND or AD on the officers part with my firearm, or if something of mine had been severely damaged when it got flung from the cruiser? I'm ultimately very happy with the outcome of my first stop while carrying, I just have questions.Edit: tl;dr: an officer cleared my firearm in the direction of traffic, left my holster, mag, and +1 round on the hood of the cruiser and tried to drive away with it still there, thrust my potentially loaded firearm back into my hands and turned his back on me after, and lost my +1 round. via /r/CCW https://ift.tt/2zdjdcA
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