Soldier beaten, rifle stolen
Just A Grunt sent us this story from Atlanta of a soldier on leave with his rifle (?!) who was mugged while sitting in his cousin’s car;
Seven men walked to the car, he said
“They were coming up to the car,” the soldier told the television station. “I noticed T.J. hit the unlock button. They came up to the side of the car. They opened the door and grabbed my rifle.”
The soldier said he was punched, kicked and hit in the head with a glass bottle when he tried to retrieve his gun.
“I tried to call out to my cousin T.J. but he didn’t do anything,” the soldier said in a WSB news report.
The story doesn’t mention why doofus was home on leave, where his unit is, or how the Hell he took his weapon on leave. And if it’s even possible to take weapon on leave, what was he doing sitting in a bad neighborhood with the damn thing?
Sounds to me like a whole bunch of people are going to jail over this one, if it’s even true.
So, how’s it make all our friends in Atlanta feel knowing there’s some version of an assault weapon on your streets?
Category: Military issues
Maybe it was his hunting or otherwise personal rifle and the reporter just mucked it up not understanding that Soldiers generally lock their military arms up in an arms room.
I’m going to throw a Bull Shit flag on the soldier’s story, I’m further going to say that unless it’s actually as Cpt Me postulates above, this ‘soldier’ is likely to be the first one going to jail.
Update to the story. I contacted the reporter with my concerns and she very graciously took my questions to her editors who have now decided to pull the story.
The first thing they need to determine is if this guy was even a soldier, since they have no info on him.
From the reporter our email exchanges.
I agree there’s something we’re missing. I have asked APD about it and they say they know nothing. And WSB didn’t include a name. I couldn’t understand why any soldier would have his gun.
You also make good points about the airport.
I’ll bring them up with one of the editors so we can rethink this.
And then finally this.
I just wanted to let you know that we are taking the story down. Your arguments persuaded them.
Nicely done Grunt, something is definitely not right about this story, he couldn’t posibly have his issue weapon with him unless he was trying to steal/sell it and come up with a B.S. story as cover. If this was his issue weapon he’s getting locked up….
Could be his personal hunting rifle, could be he is Nat’l Guard or Reserve,,,,,,,,, all of the above, or none of the above. But if the story told did take place, he oughta check the creds on cousin T.J. who “hit the unlock button”, and didn’t do anything while he got his ass kicked.
Basically, sounds like pure bullshit from another wannabe.
Nuf Sed
Just checked out the link and the story is still up, and still sounding fishy!
A BS story from a loser F-ed up pogue (“lost” or taken, either way)… out here in Atlanta in the Section 8 housing the service has got me in, with all the local riff-raff shooting off whole mags of AK and Glock on New Years’, another “assualt weapon” (actual) wouldn’t make much difference (RPGs, yes, they didn’t get grabbed).
the story is still up as of 1:10pm; the final paragraph says that the soldier did not have his uniform on and it was not clear why he had his weapon on him.
I guess this is their “taking the story down.”
Sorry, #4 above was me…
I can’t speak for every unit, but I served as a Company Armorer both in the Rakkasans and The Old Guard. There is no way this “soldier” had an issued weapon, outside of him being AWOL. The only way I could possibly fathom this story being true would be if he was station at Fort Benning, drew his weapon, then decided to just leave and this story occurred before Fort Benning went on lockdown. We took weapons accountability very seriously, something as minor as a misplaced bayonet could lead to an Article 15 and a five hour search.
I agree with fm2176. I’ve seen my unit at Fort Hood go absolutely apeshit over missing NVG’s, let alone a fucking weapon. One, I have my doubts that this story is even true. Two, if it is true, he needs to seriously check out his friend who obviously set him up. I think in the end it will either be pure BS, or completely exaggerated.