My original Colt Trooper long ago sold and now returns!

[CoElkHunter]

In the middle '70s, I bought this Colt Trooper new on sale because it had a nickel finish and I guess back then nobody cared for that finish. I wasn't 21 yet, so my dad (now deceased) actually purchased it and I gave him the money to buy it. I soon had a local gunsmith parkerize the gun as I didn't care for the nickel either. I replaced the wooden grips with rubber Pachmayr grips. A few years later I gave it to one of my brothers as payment for an expensive Christmas gift (maybe a tv?) to my parents from their sons and I didn't have the money at the time to contribute. That brother later gave it to my younger brother as he wasn't into guns. Some years later, my younger brother sold it to the father (now deceased) of one of his friends. Apparently, the gun was stolen from that owner and a police report was initiated but he didn't have the serial number when the report was filed. About a year and a half ago, my mother now in her nineties, received a letter from LAPD stating they had recovered the Colt and it was registered to my dad and wanted to return it to him. My younger brother eventually was able to receive the Colt after providing my father's death certificate and filling out paperwork for a background check. LAPD lost his original submitted paperwork, but after a year or so he got the Colt. It had been hard chromed in the interim and my brother replaced the rubber grips with original Colt grips and some other custom grips he had found. I thought this was quite the story and wanted to share it here.

 

[375er]

Ya gotta ask yourself punk...."Do I feel lucky?"

 

[Wyatt Smith]

Very neat story. I’m it found it’s way home.

 

[sierraone]

What a story.....congratulations on it making its way back to you after all these years.

 

[CoElkHunter]

One of the things that's interesting is I mentioned it being "registered" to my dad. Well, there was no registration back then, just the original owner's paperwork at purchase. This was all done on paper as there were no computers. How they traced it back to my dad's ownership from 45+ years ago is astounding.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Very cool, does make you wonder what stories, good or bad, that revolver could tell.

 

[Cam300]

Very cool story! Thanks for sharing and glad it found its way home.

 

[Tgood1]

Love it. Thanks for sharing

 

[PLM]

Pretty amazing for them to trace it back all those years. Cool that you got it back. Now, if it could talk!

 

[PARA45]

One of the things that's interesting is I mentioned it being "registered" to my dad. Well, there was no registration back then, just the original owner's paperwork at purchase. This was all done on paper as there were no computers. How they traced it back to my dad's ownership from 45+ years ago is astounding.

This is proof that Big Brother has been watching for a long time.

 

[meigsbucks]

An interesting story.