Two men picked the wrong guy in their plan to coerce a stranger into buying them a gun at Bloomington’s Rural King store.
According to a Bloomington Police Department detective’s report, he was on duty wearing plain clothes and parked in an undercover pickup truck when two men tapped on the driver’s side window about 6 p.m. May 13.
They claimed to be too young to legally buy a handgun and showed the undercover detective about $400, asking him to buy them a weapon from the store’s gun department.
The probable cause affidavit the detective filed in the case said he was asked several times “if I would purchase a handgun with money provided by them, and then ’gift’ them the firearm after purchasing it.”
After explaining he was a BPD officer who also works for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, one of the men ran off. The other, an 18-year-old, was told “to leave the parking lot and not solicit other individuals,” the affidavit said.
The detective recognized one of the men as an 18-year-old he knew wasn’t allowed to possess a gun because of pending charges of vehicle theft, theft, unauthorized entry into two vehicles and criminal mischief filed in April.
“Through my current employment, I knew that (the suspect) was not allowed to possess a firearm,” the affidavit said.
The next day, the store manager called police to report the same two men were back at the gun counter, interested in the handgun selection.
The investigation continued, and the afternoon of May 19 the suspect was arrested on a felony charge of attempted unlawful straw purchase of a firearm.
During a Monroe Circuit Court hearing, a judge ordered him held without bond because the arrest violated terms of his jail release in the April case.
A straw purchase is when someone prohibited from buying or having guns has someone else purchase them on their behalf.
Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967,
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Undercover officer reports two men asked him to buy them a gun
Reporting by Laura Lane, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
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