A shoplifting arrest involving Glendale police took a dramatic turn when officers discovered the suspect was carrying a Glock pistol modified to fire fully automatically and a 50-round-capacity drum magazine.
CBS News Colorado reported that Glendale police arrested the suspect on shoplifting-related allegations before discovering the weapon. The drum magazine alone represents a significant legal problem under state law: Colorado Revised Statutes § 18-12-302, enacted in 2013, makes it a Class 2 misdemeanor to sell, transfer, or possess an ammunition feeding device capable of holding more than 15 rounds, according to the statute. A 50-round drum blows well past that threshold.
What elevates the case beyond a state misdemeanor, though, is the apparent modification to the handgun itself. Devices commonly known as Glock switches convert semi-automatic pistols into weapons capable of fully automatic fire, and federal law treats such a conversion device as a machinegun in its own right, carrying penalties of up to 10 years in prison for unauthorized possession, per Federal Crimes Lawyers.
How Fast a Modified Glock Can Fire
The danger posed by these conversions comes down to sheer rate of fire. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has found that installing a machinegun conversion switch on a semi-automatic Glock pistol allows it to fire at a rate of 1,100 to 1,200 rounds per minute, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. That kind of output turns a standard handgun into something closer to a machine gun, which is precisely how federal statute defines it.
The Glendale find is not an isolated phenomenon. The ATF's National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment reported in January 2025 that law enforcement agencies nationwide recovered 11,088 machinegun conversion devices between 2019 and 2023, a surge of more than 500% in devices recovered over five years, per the Smoking Gun.
Colorado's Magazine Ban Faces Its Own Legal Fight
Shoplifting Enforcement
The underlying offense that led to the arrest was shoplifting, a category of crime that has been climbing across Colorado. A November 2025 study by the Common Sense Institute found reported shoplifting incidents in the state rose 22.4% in 2024 to 27,094 cases, with an estimated 89% of retail theft incidents never reported to police at all.
Theft of $2,000 or more is a felony.
It remains unclear whether Glendale police will pursue the theft and weapons allegations in county court or refer the machinegun conversion component to federal prosecutors for ATF review, a distinction that could significantly change the stakes for the suspect given the decade-long federal exposure tied to machinegun conversion devices.
