AL Commander Indicted for Ceremonial Rifle Theft
Parade Garand
Rifles stolen from American Legion leads to arrests of legion commander, 4 others
AMELIA, Ohio (WXIX) – Five people have been arrested in connection with rifles being stolen from the Amelia American Legion.
Justin Tuttle, Sarah Stouder, Samuel Willman, Jessica Caudill, and Shawn Griffith are facing charges following the theft that happened on Sept. 25, 2023, according to the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office.Around 1:15 p.m. on the 25, deputies were called to the Amelia American Legion Post 773 on East Main Street.
The legion commander at the time, Griffith, told deputies that numerous M-1 Garand inoperable ceremonial rifles had been stolen from the post’s safe, the sheriff’s office explained.
Detectives investigated and later found out that Griffith and the others were involved in the theft, the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office said.
The firearms stolen from the American Legion were kept at Store Space Self Storage while the suspects tried to sell them, the sheriff’s office added.
On Nov. 7, 2023, detectives served search warrants at the homes of Caudill and Willman.
Three of the stolen rifles and electronic devices, which contained communications between all of the suspects, were seized from the homes, according to the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office.
Tuttle, Stouder, Willman and Caudill were indicted on Feb. 6 for receiving stolen property, the sheriff’s office said. Willman was also indicted for a charge of having weapons while under disability.
Griffith, the former legion commander, was indicted for eight counts of grand theft, the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office said.
This tale of douche-baggery brought to us via Mike B’s comment on today’s FGS.
Category: Crime, Guest Link
Wait…..WHAT?!?! W-T-F !? (over)
A senior person, who should know better, STOLE “ceremonial” (weapons rendered inop) rifles?
Why? What was he planning on doing with them? (more like, what was he planning on doing TO them?)
Could they have been disassembled and parts used to make a operable rifle?
Sounds like a lot of work to me for little gain.
Sounds like the work of immature idiots.
(and people wonder why I’ve never joined any of the major league Veterans’ Organizations)
Ceremonial Garands run around $200-300. Fully operating ones are normally $1K+ at the LGS, cheaper in Anniston. Not sure what their master plan was but it seems: free gun?
It sounds like their brains were deactivated too.
Losers.
American Legion leads the way!
There are a lot of things I’m not going to steal, but, with four years in “the Army’s official ceremonial unit and escort to the president,” a ceremonial rifle is the last thing I’d steal. TOG: the only time I was ever assigned an M16, an M14 and an M1903….
Well it’s late in the week and having been an American Legion colorguard member for quite a few years and the national champions in 2000 2001 for drill, my two cents is what the flying fuck are they gonna do with an inoperable M-1?
Real quick funny story: we were doing a parade and doing our drill …march with a flip and a spin and a tap tap and a March March through Frederick, Maryland, and one of the guys rifles disassembled right in the middle of going down Main Street.
One of the guys broke off the formation, marched back around and picked up the two pieces, put them back together, handed them back to the guy that lost his weapon, and we continued on down the street.
I would hasten to say I believe our ones were operable for a lot of the holiday ceremonies we would fire a volley salute with blanks so therefore they were operable.
Can’t imagine what you would want with an inop weapon, unless it was a doorstop or a wall decoration
Blank firing ones normally have a steel rod welded in the barrel and breech so as not to allow chambering of live ammunition. If you were able to shoot it without a BFA that was probably the case.
You know, it’s obviously been a couple of years, and I certainly didn’t have that much weapons experience back then, so this certainly could be the case I didn’t even think about the BFAs.
Those I definitely had experience with, and I honestly honestly at this point can’t remember whether we had them or not.
Um, do these dummies know how serial numbers work?
One thing the government takes seriously is accountability of weapons!
Unless we’re talking about Fast and Furious… or Afghanistan…. Iran-Contra, smuggling weapons-grade plutonium to the clandestine Israeli weapons program, Ukraine, VX precursors to Iraq, and then invading them for it…
But those where legitimate mistakes, you fuckers on the other hand!
Shoulda bribed the right people, suckahs.
Demilled/dewatted usually go off the books if they are sold civilian. They are non-guns with no more regs than Nerf guns.
The crime is deactivating old warhorse rifles.
Agreed! I was operating under the suspicion that these are CMPs, as any other avenue would require finding and purchasing the ‘nerfed’ guns.
(maybe I assumed a tad…)
For all those interested in doing paperwork:
https://thecmp.org/cmp_sales/veteran-support/
(imo, it’s worth it for funerals, rendering honors, and such)
Too bad that they tried pulling back the operating handle and the M-1 Gods gave them the infamous M-1 thumb. I got mine by being a little bit slow while waiting for comphribon to come aboard.
If you’re going to get caught stealing, steal something worth stealing, like a Slayer tape. At least, that’s how it used to be.
Seems like you used your youth wisely (edit: embedded link to Jane’s Addiction)
Second edit: apologies if the art work is offensive but the song is worth it imho
Fun fact: GHUA was released September 11, 2001.
Another fun fact, nothing else happened that day.
I had heard that “some people” did “something”.
Stoopid PeePill of The Week Thread drop early? Saw this earlier and on Mike B’s comment and just had to shake my head. Think it was Mrs. Gump that pointed out “stupid is as stupid does” thing.
Maybe AL National needs to do a deep forensic audit of this post and see what other nefarious activities have gone on there. Betcha they’ll find a hive of phonies in the woodwork, too.
People can and will reactivate Drill Rifles depending on how they were deactivated. Plus they’ll take parts (Lock bar rear sight, uncut op rod, etc) off of them that are hard to find to build up a period correct rifle (Manufacturer, Drawing Numbers, etc).
There are a lot of 1903 rifles that were once Drill Rifles that have been reactivated over the years.
I know here in the Florida Panhandle there are a couple WWII era Jeeps that have deactivated M1 Garands and M1 Carbines on them for display purposes.
Regardless if the rifle is or isn’t deactivated, in this case it should be considered a firearm theft, and therefore a felony. Plus as alluded to already since they technically belong to the Army/CMP that should carry a federal charge. I see them being the new crop of Penitentiary Brides…..!
Mike
USAF Retired
What does this mean in the article
having weapons while under disability.
Just wondering
Presumably Willman is a prohibited person i.e. not able to have firearms. Could be from; a restraining order, prior conviction for felony or drugs or part of a plea agreement, being adjudicated mentally deficient, a pretrial motion to refrain from being in possession of a firearm.
It’d be nice to know. Digging dirt isn’t exactly my lane here at TAH but we have a crack team that might indulge us.
Means a person has been adjudicated mentally defective or instituted in a mental facility and is deemed unable, due to this disability from possessing a firearm.
Example in Florida the verbiage is as follows.
“A person who has been adjudicated mentally defective or who has been committed to a mental institution, as those terms are defined in s. 790.065(2), may not own a firearm or possess a firearm until relief from the firearm possession and firearm ownership disability is obtained.”
Mike
USAF Retired
A Weapon Under Disability/WUD Charge is defined by ORC as:
To knowingly acquire, have, carry, or use a firearm if any of the following apply:
With this crew it was probably all of them. Since it is the AL I doubt few if any of them EVER served. The ones that did serve likely are all top secret Navy SEALs.
More likely Top Seekrit SooperDooperSEALRangerSFReconScoutSniperPJ’s.
WOW, what 24K POS’es.