A fully automatic machine gun owned by an officer on the Salt Lake police SWAT team has been missing for more than a week.
On Jan. 9, an officer on his way to work put his MP5 - loaded with 30 rounds - on the roof of his patrol car. The officer apparently became distracted and drove off, forgetting about the weapon, according to several sources who spoke to the Deseret News on condition of anonymity.Members of the SWAT team have been on special assignments this week looking for the weapon but so far have come up short.
"As a police officer, I can't imagine much worse than losing my gun," one source said. "Especially a gun like that," said another officer.
The officer was on his way to work Sunday night from his Sandy home when he apparently put the machine gun and 9mm ammunition on the top of the car and forgot about it after he was distracted by a child. Sources said the officer heard something fall off the vehicle near 8500 S. State but apparently thought it was his lunchbox.
He looked around, saw his lunchbox and didn't give the noise a second thought until later, sources said.
Salt Lake Police Capt. William Duncan confirmed that the weapon had been lost but referred comments to Lt. Marty Vuyk and Lt. Scott Atkinson, the department's SWAT commander.
"We're not sure about how it was lost," Atkinson said Monday. "It may have rolled off of the top of his car. It's under investigation."
Vuyk, the department's spokesman, said no one had told him about the missing gun.
Atkinson would not identify the officer but said the weapon was determined to be missing when the officer returned home after his Sunday shift and went to put the gun back inside his home.
Other police departments apparently have been notified of the missing machine gun as have schools and businesses in the area where the weapon was believed to have been lost. "It's more of an effort to find out where it was than a warning," Atkinson explained.
The lieutenant declined to say whether any disciplinary action has been taken against the unidentified officer.
Sources told the Deseret News that department leaders are upset over the incident and are greatly concerned about who has the weapon and what they may do with it. The gun has been placed on the National Crime Index Computer as stolen.
The officer who lost the gun has been with the SWAT team at least two years, sources said. The gun can be owned only by someone who has a special permit from the Department of Alcohol, Tobaccco and Firearms.
Atkinson said anyone who may come across the weapon is encouraged to bring it into any police department - no questions asked.
The machine gun is not the first to be missing from a Salt Lake police officer. In November 1992, a burglar broke into a marked patrol car assigned to a SWAT sergeant and stole, among other equipment, an MP5 submachine gun from the vehicle's trunk.
That gun was later recovered from a 17-year-old Logan boy.
Since that incident, Chief Ruben Ortega has required officers to secure their weapons and not store them in their vehicles. The officer had been storing the machine gun inside his home and was taking it to work when the incident occurred.