Our most recent Irresponsible Gun Owner of the Day, Sebeka Police Chief Eric Swenson, wants to set the record straight re: his missing police gear (including stun grenades). As wadenapj.com reports, post TTAG IGOTD, “Swenson was contacted by all the networks, Fox News, and many other media outlets, all asking about a story that’s gone viral about him misplacing weapons and finding them in his son’s backyard fort. He said when he tries to explain it didn’t happen that way and asks to give his side of what happened, media have ignored that and stuck with the sensational story. He said he’s furious no one wants to know the truth.” Truth? We can handle the truth! So . . . what’s the real deal Chief?
Swenson said he’s been in the process of moving to a new home and renovating and painting it. While he was moving his belongings, he said he noticed his night-vision goggles were missing. As he looked for them, he also couldn’t find a police radio and some stun grenades . . .
Over the weekend, Swenson said he searched high and low for the items, thinking they had been stuck somewhere safe during the move to his new house. He eventually found the stun grenades in his attic. Those night-vision goggles were found under Swenson’s 9-year-old boy’s bed — the child had been playing with them and stashed them away.
“But he knows not to touch [dangerous weapons],” Swenson said of his son.
After he had found everything, Swenson said he called the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office back on Monday to let them know the items had turned up safely in the home. Swenson said he remarked to the deputy that he had searched everywhere — including the kids’ fort in the back yard — before finding the items in the attic and the goggles under the bed.
Hmmm. “Media reports, quoting from sheriff’s department logs, said the items were all found in the fort.” So the logs were wrong? Anyway, IF we believe the Chief that there weren’t any firearms or fort involved, it’s still an excellent example of irresponsibility. A stun grenade ain’t an old photo album. No matter how firearms-savvy his kid, that’s not the kind of thing you want hanging around Linda Blair territory.
Besides, if the Chief can’t remember where he put a grenade, how do we know he practices safe gun storage? Does he even HAVE a safe? If he did, any dangerous ordnance in his possession would’ve remained in the big metal box until the move. Ostensibly.
My wife has this funny way of tidying up that makes things disappear. I also have “senior moments” where I forget where I put stuff. But when it comes to firearms and ammo, it’s either on my person or in the safe. Done.
It wouldn't surprise me if the logs were wrong. There's an old maxim that says that the first report from the battlefield is always wrong. A log entry written in haste by a bored dispatcher or a sloppy deputy who was on his way to the locker room so he could go and get some breakfast could easily misstate the actual events.
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