Thousands of guns waiting to be found

[NOLA_Ken]

As a young radio technician for the New Orleans Police Department in the 1950s, Bob Falcon was told by a friend that he ought to see what was happening on the bridge over Chef Menteur Pass.
So Falcon and other technicians took a detour while working on a radio tower in the area and watched as NOPD officers and trustys shoveled guns from pickups through the drawbridge and into the water below.
"It was an interesting thing to watch, no big deal about it," Falcon said. "They were getting overloaded in the property room and they had to get rid of this stuff. They couldn't sell it and it was the only way to dispose of it."
Falcon and others say that a large cache of guns recently found in the waterway by a diving crew installing electrical lines under the bridge was likely some of thousands of weapons sent to a watery grave by NOPD decades ago.
Officials with the department and with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office confirmed this week that their agencies historically used local waterways to dispose of weapons collected in the course of investigations. But the two agencies said they did not dump guns into Chef Pass, in eastern New Orleans.
Bob Young, an NOPD spokesman who used to work in the department's property division, was surprised Friday when told that Falcon had watched New Orleans officers disposing of guns in the pass. Young had said previously that he only knew of the department dumping guns in the Mississippi River. Neither police agency dumps guns into waterways today.
Falcon, who retired from the NOPD as a captain and head of the electronics division in 1978, said trustys, a group then made up mainly of vagrants, must have shoveled hundreds of guns into the water as he and his colleagues watched.
"I was into hunting at the time and that was mainly the reason we went down there, a few of us in the department in support services," Falcon said. "We kind of drooled as we watched it go over."
The guns, however, were hardly in pristine condition when they were tossed into the water, Falcon said. Department policies required that weapons first be smashed with a maul to make sure they could not be reused, he said.
Chuck Wright, on the other hand, said he happened upon police officers getting rid of weapons at the site.
Wright said he was on his way to work as a deckhand on a fishing boat one morning in the mid-1970s when two unmarked police cars, with dashboard lights flashing, stopped traffic on the Chef Pass bridge.
Officers got out of the cars and began unloading their vehicles, which were so heavy with guns that their trunks sagged, Wright said. The weapons went over the side, missing a fishing boat near the pylons, he said.
Wright said he saw the same procedure repeated some time later but wasn't sure what agency was dumping the guns on either occasion.
"It's the perfect spot to do it, because who's going to be diving down there anyway?" Wright said. "You can dive there, I guess, but it's dangerous. That current just rolls through there."
One gun in particular stood out: a gold-plated 30-30 rifle that, like the others, was sent to the depths.
"It was such a pretty rifle, such a shame to have them throw them over the bridge," he said.
Slidell resident Bonnie Vanney, who has written books about the waterways in eastern New Orleans, said the area was historically a common place for NOPD to dump all kinds of confiscated materials, including slot machines.
"The Police Department would not let anyone know when they where coming but the locals like myself always (knew) because they blocked the street and told us the day before so we wouldn't run off the bridge," Vanney wrote in an e-mail.

[NOLA_Ken]

I'd love to find that gold plated 30-30

[Kentucky Kache]

What are the chances of the guns being in the ocean by now? I don't know how deep those rivers are, but it said they were fast moving.

[NOLA_Ken]

Chef Pass connects Lake Ponchartrain to Lake Borgne, I've been out there fishing before and there is a current, but I think the guns would likely still be scattered around the bottom under the bridge. I don't know how deep it is there, but it seems like a good magnet fishing spot.

[NOLA_Ken]

http://www.wdsu.com/news/16643451/detail.html

Original news report on the story they look pretty rough, but might make good wall hangers.

[1more4me]

Nola Ken,
I wouldn't doubt they'd toss them in the water like that- Fresh water- much less Salt or Brackish would destroy them beyond use in days to weeks...
Twice in my life I've personally watched unbelieveable caches of guns destroyed. Was in Bosnia in 1996-2001 and all consficated and turned in amnesty guns were destroyed via an M-88 (tank-recovery tank) rolling over them laid out right over the edge of a concrete walkway. Crushes and bends them to nothing usefull. Sad thing is- they weren't all AK-47 war junk- I handled many- Brand new M-16's the _ _ _ had given to Mushadeen fighters that were never used before the US/UN moved in. Hardly used over and under italian made engraved shotguns that would be worth 4-5,000 each- laid out with beat up worn out 1901 Enfields and dozens of other makes and models I would recognize - all got the same treatment- trashed- then buried in a pit. In Haiti- the first one, Uphold Democracy 1994–1996- they would load 8'x8'x20' shipping containers- slam full to the doors- cut a dozen holes around the top and dump the whole thing off the barges into 300' of water off the coast. Most were war junk but If just one of the 20 revolvers that went in was a pre 1900 colt- it's worth crying over and there probably was...

Anyway- water is a fine place to destroy dispose of a gun- bet the Gold Plating on that 30-30 wouldn't even survive the first year before it corroded off into the mud unrecoverable.
PEACE- From the other side of LA.

[NOLA_Ken]

Fresh water isn't so rough on them if they get sealed in silt and away from oxygen, but yeah the salt gets them quick. I've seen video of guns destroyed like you are talking about, it's kind of sad really, especially when they are collectible.

[cthayerusmc]

Was this just New Orleans PD that practiced this or was this a general way of doing things all over back then?

[Bum Luck]

"Officers got out of the cars and began unloading their vehicles, which were so heavy with guns that their trunks sagged, Wright said. The weapons went over the side, missing a fishing boat near the pylons, he said."

If I were in that fishing boat, I'd have gone fishing with a magnet - pronto.