Stolen gun returns to Gig Harbor after 32 years missing

A handgun stolen 32 years ago from Gig Harbor was returned to its owner Monday afternoon at the Gig Harbor Police Department.

The gun, a Ruger .44 revolver, was stolen during a 1984 home burglary.

The gun was found Dec. 15 in Missouri by Conservation Agent Adam Arnold, but the man found with the gun was not charged with the Gig Harbor burglary — he was born in 1989.

Lt. Bill Colberg, who retired from the department in 2013, was the Gig Harbor officer who responded to the incident in 1984.

“Gig Harbor was totally different then,” Colberg said. “It was unusual for residential burglaries (to happen) back then. (Gig Harbor) was a really small, sleepy town.”

Colberg served 32 years in the Gig Harbor Police Department and 43 years total after beginning his career in California.

“He wrote one of the best police reports I’ve seen to this day,” said Police Chief Kelly Busey of the handwritten incident report.

The gun’s original owner was amazed to have it tracked down after so many years and asked the police department to keep possession of it.

Busey said that the gun will be traded in for other equipment the police department uses.

“(It’s) a neat deal that the system sustained itself since 1984,” Busey said of the department’s record keeping. “(I’d) love to know the path (of the gun), but we’ll never know.”

This story was originally published February 11, 2016 at 3:45 PM with the headline "Stolen gun returns to Gig Harbor after 32 years missing."