5 posts tagged “orlando”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6953374.stm
A man in Florida surprised police by handing in a surface-to-air missile launcher during a gun amnesty in the city of Orlando.
Under the no-questions-asked scheme, "Kicks for Guns", anyone who surrendered a firearm would receive trainers or $50 (£25).
The Orlando Sentinel newspaper said the man exchanged the rocket launcher for designer footwear for his daughter.
He told the newspaper he found the 4ft (1.2m) weapon in a shed last week.
The unidentified man said he had tried in vain to get rid of the launcher, which is designed to blow aircraft out of the sky.
"I took it to three dumps to try to get rid of it and they told me to get lost."
"I didn't know what to do with it, so I brought it here," he told the newspaper.
Besides the missile launcher, Orlando Police collected more than 310 guns during the amnesty.
After inspecting the rocket launcher, police spokeswoman Sgt Barbara Jones said: "I tell you, you never know what you're going to get."
the actual story from olando paper
Cops ask for guns, get missile launcher
Authorities trade sneakers, gift cards for 310 weapons
RED HUBER, ORLANDO SENTINEL, August 17, 2007
Orlando Police Sgt. Barbara Jones holds a surface-to-air missile launcher that had been turned in to the Orlando Police Kicks for Guns 2007 program on Friday. Citizens can turn in a gun with no questions asked and receive a pair of sneakers. The event was held at the Citrus bowl on Church Street.
Orlando emptied its bureau drawers and closets Friday of more than 300 unwanted guns -- and one surface-to-air missile launcher.
The shoulder-fired weapon showed about 6 p.m. when an Ocoee man drove to the Florida Citrus Bowl to trade the 4-foot-long launcher for size-3 Reebok sneakers for his daughter.
"I didn't know what to do with it, so I brought it here," explained the
man, who said he found the missile in a shed he tore down last week. "I took
it to three dumps to try to get rid of it, and they told me to get lost."
After hefting the weapon designed to blow jets out of the sky, police spokeswoman Sgt. Barbara Jones commented, "I tell you, you never know what you're going to get."
Ancient pistols, zip guns, shotguns and assault rifles began appearing shortly after 7 a.m. in the most successful gun exchange in Orlando and Orange County. In all, 310 firearms were turned in.
"Anytime we can sit out here and have people bring us guns, it's good for the community," sheriff's Cmdr. Al Rollins said.
Traded for sneakers or $50 gift certificates, the guns that filled boxes at the Pine Castle Woman's Center on South Orange Avenue would never reach the hands of criminals.
A portable crime scene
And each gun came with a story never to be told.
"No questions asked, right?" asked one man, who questioned the promise of anonymity for everyone turning in a gun.
"Absolutely," said deputies, who described the fellow as looking like an old biker.
Moments later, he returned with a plastic bag and extracted what deputies described as a portable crime scene worth a five-year mandatory minimum sentence in federal prison. The homemade, 40-shot assault pistol turned out to be a cut-down rifle with an illegal short barrel.
"That would scare the pants off you," Rollins said.
Deputies in Pine Castle and Orlando police officers working at a second exchange outside the Citrus Bowl checked each gun against state and federal lists to find out whether it had been reported stolen.
At least four turned in at the Citrus Bowl were hot guns because police say the serial numbers had been filed off in violation of federal law.
Many could not be traced because they were made before 1968, when serial numbers became mandatory for new firearms sold in the U.S.
An unblemished 1903 .32-caliber Colt pistol caught the eye of a knowledgeable deputy who checked the Internet and found it was worth about $1,400.
Despite being more than 100 years old, it and dozens of other old handguns in various calibers still worked and would be deadly, deputies and officers said. Few of the exchanged weapons were late-model 9 mm and .45-caliber pistols, the sort used in many of the more than 100 murders last year in Orlando and Orange County.
"It's a huge success," Orlando police Detective Barb Bergin said shortly after 1 p.m. "Clearly some of the guns we took off the street today were not for sport or self-protection. Those sawed-off shotguns were clearly for committing crimes."
The gun exchange in Orlando has been held periodically for eight years with help from Clear Channel radio stations and local media, according to Bergin, who coordinates Crimeline's cash-for-tips program.
The number of "crime guns" collected Friday surprised Bergin and the officers and deputies logging the firearms.
The Orlando program and similar ones nationwide give residents a legal, safe way to dispose of unwanted firearms. At the same time, police say the guns received reduce the number that can be stolen in burglaries to arm criminals.
Last year's "Kicks for Guns" sneaker exchange collected 113 firearms and about 20 BB pistols and toy guns altered to look like real weapons.
Like 'Antiques Roadshow'Friday's exchange had discoveries similar to a PBS Antiques Roadshow episode in which a participant comes in with an unexpected treasure.
That moment for gun aficionados was the pre-noon appearance at the Citrus Bowl of a man carrying three firearms. He dropped them off and left, saying he didn't want anything.
"I wish he'd been my father," said Officer Kevin Williams, an assistant range master and gun instructor at the Orlando Police Department. "I'd love to have them."
Worth more than $3,000, the three military-style target rifles will be destroyed just like the rusted guns worth less than $50 that were turned in, organizers said. Before going under cutting torches, guns that work will be test-fired so the bullets and cartridges can be compared to evidence in unsolved murder cases, they said.
"Somebody took really good care of this," said Williams, holding a .308-caliber M1-A Springfield rifle worth about $1,500. "I'd bet a body part this was never used in a crime."
this is the first picture i took when i moved to orlando. i was waiting for a friend to arrive at a vietnamese resturant, so i wandered around and found this really spooky looking tree.
I was
Show us a local landmark. guess where i live.
