Terry Thompson bought his FN Five-seven pistol new, only to have it stolen a few months later when burglars broke into his Fort Mohave-area home in 2018 and made off with what he estimated at $4,000 to $5,000 worth of belongings. He figured the gun was gone for good. Then, in September 2019, Phoenix police called with news that would kick off a seven-year wait: they had found his firearm at the scene of an overdose death, more than 200 miles from where it was stolen.
A Call That Started Years of Waiting
Thompson told Arizona's Family he had used the pistol for target practice before it was stolen, and he assumed it reached Phoenix through the drug trade or something similar after the burglary. When investigators called in September 2019 to say they had located it, Thompson said the explanation he was given at the time was that the gun would likely be returned once the case closed — with an investigator estimating that process would take three to four months.
Instead, the months turned into years. Thompson said he followed up with Phoenix police every few months since the call, and that the department's explanation for the delay changed over time. He also said the overdose victim's roommate was a felon, which he understood would have prohibited that person from legally possessing the firearm in the first place.
Police Confirm the Account, Still Can't Explain the Delay
By the time Arizona's Family began asking questions, more than six weeks passed before Phoenix police responded. A department representative ultimately confirmed Thompson's account, and the investigator who had originally promised a quick turnaround had since retired before the department ever circled back. At one point, a Phoenix police sergeant handling the inquiry could not seem to find the gun at all.
Phoenix police said the gun was held as part of an investigation involving the overdose victim's roommate, but the department has not said why that meant holding onto it for seven years, nor why it needed to retain the firearm at all.
A Retired Commander Calls It Baffling
Jeffeory Hynes, who worked for Phoenix police for 32 years before retiring as a commander, reviewed the case details for the station and said he was baffled by it. He said the handling described in Thompson's case was far from how things are supposed to work.
“It's not even close to what you've described in this incident,” Hynes said, per the same account.
Arizona law does address a victim's right to get property back — the state statute on return of a victim's property says that, on request and after consultation with the prosecuting attorney, the agency investigating an offense shall return property belonging to the victim, though the available text does not spell out every condition that applies. Separately, the Phoenix Police Department's own Property Management Unit notes that releasing a firearm requires a background check, described as a prohibited-possessor check under state and federal law.
Gun Finally Headed Back to Mohave County
Phoenix police have now called Thompson to say they will return his gun. He told the station he is cautiously optimistic about actually getting it back after everything that's happened, while also saying the yearslong wait has left him struggling to move on and that he still does not have closure.
The department's handling of long-held firearms has drawn separate scrutiny elsewhere. Tucson.com reported that Phoenix can dispose of an unclaimed firearm if nobody claims it within 30 days, and that the city council approved donating 500 to 600 unclaimed guns, valued at roughly $200,000, to Ukraine's National Police. A city spokesman said Phoenix typically transfers unclaimed weapons to other law enforcement agencies, and that the Ukraine donation differed only because the recipient wasn't a domestic agency; the council separately approved a five-year contract with Sierra Tactical Auctions to resell other unclaimed and forfeited firearms. Thompson's case, however, was not an unclaimed weapon sitting in a property room — it was a known, actively identified victim waiting seven years for police to give his gun back.
