After 1,721 days and at least 1,615 miles, the gun finally surfaced.
Police in Petaluma, Calif., pulled over Juvencia Madriz-Garcia, 25, at 3:15 a.m. Monday and found one of nearly 80 guns stolen 4 1/2 years ago from Scheels All Sports at Lincoln's SouthPointe Pavilions, police said.
Madriz-Garcia, of Modesto, Calif., was speeding and swerving in his 2012 Chevrolet Malibu while driving down U.S. 101, Petaluma Police Lt. Tim Lyons said. While searching the car, the officer found the .40 caliber, semi-automatic Silver Kahr Arms pistol in the center console.
Madriz-Garcia said the gun was his uncle’s, who’d left it in the United State when he went back home to Mexico, and that he was using it for a little target practice with a friend. Police arrested him on suspicion of possessing a loaded gun.
That gun started its journey into the black market Oct. 1, 2007, when two teenagers broke into the Lincoln sporting goods store and took 79 guns, including handguns and tactical rifles, and ammo.
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Lincoln police had rooted out the four rifles and 26 handguns by the next morning and had identified three people they believed were connected to the burglary.
Cleophus Collier and Dominique Barton, both now 22, eventually were convicted of breaking into Scheels. Barton is in community corrections and Collier is at the Nebraska State Penitentiary, facing federal charges in a March 17 bank robbery.
Other guns have trickled in over the years. After going off the radar in Lincoln, they made their way to Phoenix; Boulder County, Colo.; and California. They’ve been used in a car jacking, kidnapping and organized crime. A soldier from Phoenix who served in Afghanistan used a Glock 9mm to kill himself in December 2007, two months after the burglary at Scheels.
“It’s amazing how far these guns have ended up,â€Â Lincoln Police Sgt. Jeri Roeder said.
The pistol that turned up Monday brought the number authorities have recovered to 50. Twenty-nine are still flying below the radar.
They could stay that way for a long time, said Trista Frederick, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the Kansas City division.
Police still find guns stolen back in the 1980s.
Frederick said California was a magnet for out-of-state guns like the one that popped up Monday because it has stricter gun controls and criminals buy weapons elsewhere to smuggle across state lines and sell on the black market.