Man sentenced in gun possession case; feds checked his Instagram

SAN FRANCISCO >> A Bay Area resident pleaded guilty to gun possession and was sentenced the same day to four years in federal prison in a case that started with his alleged purchase of a Playstation with counterfeit bills, court records show.

Daniel Shrum, 42, of

San Francisco was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge James Donato. He gets credit for the year he’s spent in jail since his June 2020 arrest on federal charges.

Shrum pleaded guilty to possessing two pistols with no serial numbers that were found in a December 2019 search of his home, prosecutors said. Police also found about $6,700 in counterfeit cash, according to a sentencing memo by the U.S. Attorney’s office.

The investigation started in November 2019, when Shrum and his wife allegedly showed up at the Stonestown Galleria Mall in San Francisco where Shrum bought the Playstation with the counterfeit cash, prosecutors said. The store called mall security when employees realized to guns with no serial number.

In a letter sent to Donato, Shrum wrote he takes “full responsibility” for what happened and for his underlying drug addiction he called the root of the crime. He wrote he’s now completely sober for the first time in 20 years,

“I sincerely apologize to the court, my family and to all the people I have victimized with my wreckless (sic) behavior and lies of a glamorous lifestyle surrounded by drugs and the false narrative that I portrayed on social media that may have had an adverse effect on our communities and especially on our young adults,” Shrum wrote. “I can honestly say that I am now far from the man I that was arrested a year ago in June.”