Man demands answers after cops fail to return seized rifles
A PIETERMARITZBURG man who is unemployed and had hoped to sustain his family through hunting was demanding answers from the Mountain Rise police station over his two unreturned riffles, which had been seized by police.
Nearly three years ago, Darryl Simon’s 9mm Glock 308 and two .22 rifles were seized as he faced charges of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (assault GBH), attempted murder, and discharging a firearm in public.
However, the charges were dropped and the court deemed him fit to carry a firearm. Simon, a dedicated hunter, has been in a battle since then to get his rifles back from the state.
At the time of the investigation, the three guns were to be taken to Amanzimtoti (now eManzimtoti) for ballistics testing, however, only his Glock was returned to him. He said he had already missed two hunting trips and explained that being a dedicated sportsman, one needs practice and he had booked the trips for that.
“I have lost a lot of money because these trips are non-refundable. I have
a lot of farms where I have been given permission to hunt. I was looking at hunting as a way to sustain my family because my wife was also retrenched about four years ago.
“Those missing guns are money for me, but right now they are not helping my family in any way. I even bought a machine to cut the meat up, bought an abattoir machine to make mince and wors, and bought a biltong maker. I was going full throttle into this thing, trying to sustain my family.”
Simon said his rifles were “brand new, only three months old”, after having bought them with some of his provident fund money following his retrenchment. Simon said one rifle cost R15 000 and the other just under R10 000, adding that fortunately he removed the scopes before they were seized. Simon said the combined value of the scopes was about R8 000.
“I have tirelessly, at least twice a month, sent emails to them. This helped a bit, to a certain degree, but with Mountain Rise being under review there have been a lot of stories pertaining to their evidence room, where there are allegations that stuff went missing. Some officers from the police station have told me they did see my firearms there.”
In November, the Daily News reported that cash that had been handed in as an exhibit had gone missing from the Mountain Rise police station’s evidence room – a sum of more than R100 000 was handed over in six bags. In December, this publication reported that following a tally of the cash in the exhibit room, it was found that more cash was missing, this time R120 000. Police confirmed at that time that there was cash missing from the evidence room, without detailing amounts.
Police were sent a query on the matter on January 15,16, 17, 30 and 31, as well as yesterday. However, no response has been forthcoming.