After an Otsego man reeled in a loaded revolver while fishing in the Kalamazoo River, police were able to determine where it had come from.
Michigan State Police said Blake Blanchard, 21, had been fishing from the shore July 28 in Otsego Township when he’d found a .357 caliber Ruger Blackhawk pistol at the end of his line.
Blanchard took the gun home can called police. State Trooper Evan Alkema went and retrieved the gun, finding it inoperable and rusted, though loaded. Alkema was able to tell that the gun’s serial number had been damaged by someone trying to obliterate it.
Technicians at the state police crime lab in Grand Rapids were able to restore the serial number and it matched a weapon that had been reported stolen during a breaking and entering of a Monterey Township home in July 2001.
State police said the Allegan County Sheriff’s Office had investigated that crime and not filed charges, though the victim believed his estranged son had been responsible for the theft. That man has since died.
(Editor's note: This end of this story was mistakenly omitted in the Aug. 23, 2018, Allegan County News. We apologize for any confusion.)
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