Anyone had gbb's seized although legal?

hightower1

bullets wrote: »

I'm still trying to figure out how both of us had two completely different
experiences at the same station, I got mine back, you got a summons!
its totally weird.

Did your 2 GBB's get sent for testing before all the hassle ?
You may have had a different experience if yours were sent for
ballistic testing.

With my situation, My GBB was sent from Customs directly to a Garda
but did not get sent for testing and I got mine back, I was
told that they would have got sent for destruction! My Phone call to them
was probably what stopped that from happening automatically.
(I tested mine my self 0.43j of energy is what it came in as)

I got a phone call from them the other day, and the Garda turned up at my place of work, and was waiting in the Reception Area for me, with a huge paddy wagon parked outside so he could get me to sign for a receipt,
for "Property Returned by Garda Siochana to owner" docket From a brief chat with him I got the feeling my situation caused him a lot of hassle at work. Was funny and a bit weird seeing a fully uniformed garda member turn up, looking for me, especially when half the company I work for know me by my user name, I reckon they all thought I was going to get arrested
or something! :eek:

Have you called out to the station in Person yet High Tower? wondering if it would
make a difference getting things sorted out. I ended up calling into the station and getting my
IAA ID photocopied and having a few phone calls made.
~B

I know, its ajoke alright.
Mine were the exact same, given direct from customs to Shannon Gardai, (i called customs then the Gardai), sent for testing and came back under 1j for both (i called the gardai again and was told this) , was then told the super intendednt was informed of this and she has x2 weeks to decide what to do, (i called back to the same gardai then) was told she didnt want to give them back and would get a summons in dec, (i called again) was told the summons was in my local station so picked that up and now am waiting for the day in court. Ennis court none the less and me with no car!

Bottom line is that they ARE legal but no Garda wants to sign them over for fear that I go nuts running down cruises street on a sat morning scaring the bejesus outta people only for a splash headline "gardai gave guns to nutjob" and it all falls down on that particular gardas head.

Now as I understood it , its a bosses job to make judgement calls and responsability in any situ, clearly the super intendent doesnt want the responsability and basically wants it to go to court so a judge can take that..... pass the buck at mine, the sgt , judges , courts and tax payers time and expense. She's certainly earning her wage.

If they asked to see me for a meeting I would have no issue with it at all, I mean I am average joe, work in an office, shirt and tie, no record not a scobe. A common sense chat to put any doubt to rest would solve this but they wont hear any of it so fine I will see them in court and have some funny facebook pics for later.

We had the exact saem experience up until when the decision to hand them back or not was made.... I dont know why they would say yes or no tbh, maybe because I live in the city and maybe your in the county or something? thats all I can think of really, cultchy Gardai see's townie wants "a gun" gets all freaked out? I dunno, at this stage I am a weird mix of filled with tooth grinding rage and laughter.

bullets

hightower1 wrote: »

tbh, maybe because I live in the city and maybe your in the county or something? thats all I can think of really, cultchy Gardai see's townie wants "a gun" gets all freaked out?

In the burbs myself, I did make the point of telling them I was a real firearms
owner and on Pulse already and had the Crime Prevention officer, and my Local Firearms office both inspect my house in the past.

I can only presume if I'm ok to have real guns then they surely could not have
a problem with a Toy one/Replica.

~B

hightower1

bullets wrote: »

In the burbs myself, I did make the point of telling them I was a real firearms
owner and on Pulse already and had the Crime Prevention officer, and my Local Firearms office both inspect my house in the past.

I can only presume if I'm ok to have real guns then they surely could not have
a problem with a Toy one/Replica.

~B

I'd say your right bullets, they rang asking me for a firearms license about three weeks in, when I called them turns out they hadnt sent them at all! I can only think they figured it was a toy so if I had a actual firearms license there is no need to test them. I just called and said but their not firearms, they are incapable of reaching velocities that class them as such as per the amended 2006 firearms act.

I had an issue like this before and they do background checks alright and I'd say they did it for both of us but seeing as you have a firearms license it made it a non issue.

Have to say I am not looking forward to doing the court things, whatever way you aint it it'd make most people nervous but a line has to be drawn somewhere and if I let this go sure where does it stop. Bottom line is we did nothing wrong and were well within the remit of the law.

Them even asking to meet you was an inconvenience to yourself that should not have happened you didnt break any law and they are inconveniencing you simply because they will not follow the rules their jobs are based upon.

I am going to stand in court stand the judges first question will be "I see sgt your applying for a seizure of property notice here, firstly can we verify the velocity levels of the items and secondly under what legislation are we proceeding?" ...... "they are under the one joule limit sir and currently there is no legislation to site" ....... bloody joke.

They have no law here to enforce as none has been broken so we are going to court to try and enforce individual gardai's personal taste on what he/she does or does not like. A true world class thug police force we have, they still think we live in the 1960's where the local Garda is the most powerful man in the village sh**e. Time to sort that out.

se conman

Any update?

hightower1

Actually now that you mention it yes, got them back this evening.
Went to court,had a chat (non vinnie jones style) with the sgt involved explained what they are and what I do with them and he decided to apply for an order to return rather than seize from the judge.

Have no idea as to why the chat couldnt have been done in the station rather than draggin me 40 mins out of my way but however thats sorted..... nearly 4 months on. Personally I think its a disgrace that it took that long and in the scheme of things it was short! I broke no law and bought nothing illegal but yet it involved my property being held for a quarter of a year, countless calls to the gardai , cost to the state , cost to he tax payer and a court sitting....and all for the fact that An Gardai are completely reluctant to educate themselves on anything they dont understand. I for one now have a far far dimmer view of them personally and as an organisation, if these are the people we pay to enforce and uphold the rule of law I honestly would think these people should be more on the ball than this. No wonder criminality is rife when the people charged with the responsibility are as inept, unable to adapt and adjust to unknown situations as this.

Thanks to everyone who wished well on this thread I hope at least Shannon Gardai see that they cant intimidate mid west airsofters into having their property taken.

bullets

Congrats! Did the Gardai give you the guns back themselves ??
Reason I ask is there may yet be a nasty surprise yet to come!!!!
as My saga continues..........
....
..
.
My order was shipped 4th November,
Customs signed for it and seized it 11th November.
UPS said it was nothing to do with them anymore.
Customs said they sent it to the Guards and nothing to do with them.
Got it back from the guards around 21st Nov.
Signed a receipt from the Guards 9th Dec.

Boom last Friday I get a bill from UPS for 4.17cent for LATE payment fees
with a balance of 52.13

Rang them up tell them my package was seized and I never signed for
the package, and when I got it back from the Guards It did not have any invoice.

I told them I never received any invoice for customs/vat fees as I did not
sign for it. Girl from accounts in UPS tells me to contact Brokerage in UPS,
Explain same thing to the brokerage and they say they cant do anything for me and to contact accounts! told them account told me to contact brokerage, and they said nope contact accounts and explain it to them again!! Bloody Heck! end of the day they need to send me out
the Original Invoice that somehow mysteriously vanished into thin air and
I get hit with a bill of 52.13. Then I need to try and get them to cancel the
late payment fee. Joy!

Gray

hightower1 wrote: »

Actually now that you mention it yes, got them back this evening.
Went to court,had a chat (non vinnie jones style) with the sgt involved explained what they are and what I do with them and he decided to apply for an order to return rather than seize from the judge.

Have no idea as to why the chat couldnt have been done in the station rather than draggin me 40 mins out of my way but however thats sorted..... nearly 4 months on. Personally I think its a disgrace that it took that long and in the scheme of things it was short! I broke no law and bought nothing illegal but yet it involved my property being held for a quarter of a year, countless calls to the gardai , cost to the state , cost to he tax payer and a court sitting....and all for the fact that An Gardai are completely reluctant to educate themselves on anything they dont understand. I for one now have a far far dimmer view of them personally and as an organisation, if these are the people we pay to enforce and uphold the rule of law I honestly would think these people should be more on the ball than this. No wonder criminality is rife when the people charged with the responsibility are as inept, unable to adapt and adjust to unknown situations as this.

Thanks to everyone who wished well on this thread I hope at least Shannon Gardai see that they cant intimidate mid west airsofters into having their property taken.

Glad to see you got a result on this.

I think the Gard's were chancing their arm & hoping you would not bother to show up in court as the Judge would have rubber stamped their application in that case. They knew they did not have any justification for their actions & would have just looked stupid when you asked them what law you had broken.

Any way I hope you enjoy the gbb's after all the hassle

Inari

First off, I'm glad you have your property back. Secondly...don't let it end here...complain your ass off to the ombudsman, s'what they're there for. Give their names and a full account of what's happened. You might think it does nothing, but it does more than not complaining. Might prevent it from happening in the future.

PS: Were they worth the wait?