TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL)--We go behind the scenes with the Tallahassee Police Department to show you how they can find out if a gun is stolen.
Technology does a lot of the work searching serial numbers all over the nation, even going back decades.
Tallahassee police say its buy back program did exactly what it was suppose to do taking in unwanted guns, and even recovering a stolen gun dating back to 1986.
Rifles and handguns are taken out of the trunks of SUVs and cars and into the hands of police.
They don't know who you are. They don't ask questions.
Police just want your guns.
Harrison Rivers dropped off a shotgun he grew up with.
"It's dangerous," said Harrison Rivers. "If you put a shell in it and close the breach it will fire."
Officers run the serial numbers through the system which will show weapons that may have been stolen.
Tallahassee police say the .357 revolver was entered in as stolen nearly 30 years ago by the Chattahoochee Police Department.
I spoke with a Chattahoochee police sergeant who told me the gun was taken during a burglary in October of 1986.
He added it was stolen from the Chattahoochee Gun and Pawn on West Washington Street.
Chattahoochee police say once they get the gun from Tallahassee police, it's possible they'll have the Florida Department of Law Enforcement do ballistics testing and turn it over to the owner.
As for the other guns, they are put into a database and later turned over to the Leon County Sheriff's Office.
"We will process the guns and get ready to transport them to the sheriff's office and a second time through the FCIC/NCIC database and turn them over to the sheriff's department, "said Sam Winton with the Tallahassee Police Department. "The sheriff's department will in turn hold them for six months and then after they will get the court order to dispose of them by melting them."
Tallahassee police say stolen guns don't usually show up at buy back programs, but in this case Chattahoochee police tell us the one they landed at this event could help them crack the unsolved case.
The Tallahassee Police Department received 32 guns at this event. Those who turned them in were given gift cards.
In 2014, police teamed up with the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives and received 61 guns. Back in 2012, 43 guns were collected.
TPD wants to have another buy back event, but no date has been set.
Remember if you have a story idea for the Insiders send us an email to abc27news@wtxl.tv attention Insiders.
