This story is so breathtakingly stupid, I had to confirm it a couple times to be sure it was not a hoax. A Detroit groundskeeper, John Chevilott, found a loaded handgun in the weeds while working and waited for the police to drive by to turn it in. When they didn’t show up, Chevilott took the gun home and handed it into his local police station where he was commended for his actions. He did this with the full knowledge and approval of his supervisor. According to news reports, that was then fired by the Department of Public Services for possession of a gun.
Chevilott is just two years shy of retirement after 23 years on the job. His supervisor was suspended for 30 days.
Chevilott’s superiors at the Department of Public Services found that he had violated department policies by possessing a weapon on work property.
At first I thought the Department must have had evidence that Chevilott was lying and that the gun was his. However, the stories all report that he found the gun in the weeds. It is not uncommon for criminals to toss a weapon when they are being pursued by police. The gun turned out to have been stolen when the police traced it.
Assuming that the Department does not believe this was his gun, there should be a firing . . . of every supervisor and official who approved this action.
What is astonishing is that I have been to Detroit and see public workers who appeared catatonic and unresponsive to verbal or physical stimuli. Yet, they have secure jobs. We have discussed how it seems that every Detroit city council member is either under investigation or facing criminal charges. They also have secure jobs until their convictions. This guy turns in a weapon before it could hurt someone and he is fired just short of retirement.
Can anyone find any more information that makes this appear less moronic?
As of 8:30 PM PST, no Detroit news service has any information on this story.
Neither does any reputable news organization.
Darren Smith, ya done good. Every department has those kinds of officers. Some have more than others. Rutting around on testosterone, instead of using their ability to reason through a situation. My father had an expression regarding folks like that. Dad would say, “He does not have the sense God gave a goose.” Glad you were able to defuse the situation and obtain a just and equitable outcome. Well done, sir.
A side note before my full rant. Long ago, My Grandfather was 6 months away from a 20 year pension when Safeway concocted some BS and fired him, denying him a pension. He started his own business and competed against them successfully. (Meat Market) For some reason the men in my family often get the shaft from management.
That aside for this fellow in Detroit, I agree, unbefricking-unbefrickinglievable. We need a viral type of citizens’ campaign to humilliate and embarass the city into doing what is right and restoring him.
Now for a real event since those in the ivory towers of detroit need to be educated. One of the guys in my old depatment and a city guy got into a vehicle pursuit with a carload of bangers. In two locations the bangers threw out hadguns and ammo (which were later believed to have been used in a drive by some time ago). I was in the South part of the county when the call came out and I arrived just as they were finally stopped, after nearly hitting an officer in another nearby city.
One of the city guys and I walked down an alley trying to locate one of the guns. We looked over a small picket fence and there was a revolver on top of the snow, underneath a child’s tricycle. Can you imagine what might have happened if the child found it before an adult did? Children seem to have a curiousity about guns and it can be dangerous. Anyway we politely asked the homeowner if we could search his back yard and take the gun out. He was worried he might be get in trouble because of the gun. We certainly could have taken the gun for community care taking purposes but it’s better to get consent for his own peace of mind. I put in the report that the homeowner, in all caps, was in no way responsible for the firearm in his property and it was obvious he did not know of its existence (due to the fact it was slightly snowing and the gun was uncovered) . Why did I do this, well for the bangers’ case obviously but it was because of a rather rash incident I got mixed up in several years before.
Another city had an officer that I had a problem with. I was with him to back him up on a domestic and was observing what he was doing since it was his call. Essentially it was a typical case of a psycho girlfriend getting mad at the boyfriend and sicking the criminal justice system on him. She swore out an affidavit declaring he had abused her and got a judge in an ex-parte hearing to execute a DV Protection order against him, thereby denying him the right to possess a firearm. To protect himself, the male half asked his dad to come over and take all the guns into safekeeping until this legal issue was resolved.
The gf called the PD and made up some BS about the guy doing something to her. It was not credible but the man invited us inside to discuss it. While there the city officer noticed on a shelf next to the man, up high, there was an antique revolver behind some items on the shelf. he handed it to me for safety purposes. When the man saw this he was overcome with worry in the “Oh my God I forgot about that, now I’m screwed” sense. It was obvious he forgot it was there, believing he had removed all the firearms to comply with the order. I told him not to worry about it that we could take it into safekeeping and he could sign a form releasing it to his dad the next day. The city officer was bent out of shape over this, insisting he should be arrested for Unlawful Possession of a Firearm. It told him there was no intent. He said it didn’t matter. I told him I was not going to allow him to jack the guy on a felony charge and have him risk losing his right to keep arms over a simple mistake. I called up the prosecutor’s office on a cell phone and explained the situation to one of the deputy prosecutors. She agreed there was no intent and said it was unlikely they would secure a conviction with a jury anyway. I told the officer the prosecutor would not charge him and the officer was very angry with me over it but I stuck to my position. We had a falling out that lasted for months over that incident but that’s just the way things go.
So you see folks, because there are people in gov’t that will fly off the handle and destroy a person at any given opportunity, you as public servants, or members of the public need to keep in mind that if you don’t find a way to make the innocent person anonymous, or cover them somehow, they are vulnerable to being fuxored by some bureaucratic wonk.
Next employee who finds a loaded gun, pick it up and do something constructive with it.
@rafflaw – Were I a cynical person (which, of course, I’m not), I’d agree with you that this was a cost-saving measure on Detroit’s part.
Unflipping believable. . .
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/15/carlos-de-luna-execution-_n_1507003.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009
Apparently this dude was killed erroneously in Texas 49 years ago. Chilling.
The key point in this story is that he was just shy of retirement…when I was working for the North Carolina Employment Security Commission, it was not uncommon for a company like GE to fire someone just before they were scheduled to retire. GE and other companies saved money that way.
It appears this may be a hoax, so let’s not all get our knickers in bunch until we have some facts. There is nothing in the police blotter yet and the only reports I can find all refer back to the local Fox news as the primary source. As most of us know due to 1st Amendment protections, Fox has the right to lie (based on a case in which they didn’t just spin the facts, but were proven in court to have knowingly misinformed.)
Kinda stupid way to cut costs. They will most likely end up paying lawyers and a nice settlement.
Are they paying 20% on pensions cancelled due to firing of soon-retirees% Can we guess to which brother-in-law of the department chief gets the bonus?
In Indonesia they call it SOP, and praise the President for exemplary conduct. Of course he owns the newspaper.
Can’t find any report of this in the Detroit News or the Detroit Free Press.
Faux Noise is the only source that knows about this?
Blogs with ‘AR15’ and ‘AK47’ in their titles are having a field-day with this.
I’m highly suspicious, but then, I always am.
A grandmother was given life without parole on a first-time drug charge, when she did not know of the drugs, see them, touch them. or much of anything else.
Meanwhile those who killed hundreds of thousands, forced millions from their homes, and tortured thousands, will not see one day of jail.
The message communicated by the bureaucrats to all employees is that if an employee finds a gun or other weapon laying around, LEAVE IT WHERE IT IS AND KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!
If a kid finds it or someone is hurt, then that is just tough.
Congratulations, geniuses. The stoopid, it burns.
I agree with Justice Holmes analysis.
How come he didn’t first file some sort of OSHA or other claim against the city for being having to work in a hazardous area with loaded guns just lying around? If he did that first I bet he would not have been fired. It is clearly his fault.
They saw an opportunity to cut costs and they took it. This happens every day in corporate America and the opportunists who do such things usually get a bonus. Let us hope Detroit does the right thing but I wouldn’t hold your breath.
This is the kind of story that lowers a red haze of rage over my eyes.
bureacracy at its finest.
If this guy truly found the gun, he should have a recourse against the Department of Public Services for the loss of his job. You are right, Professor. (as usual!) Every supervisor who signed off on this should be shown the door. I am betting it was a good way to avoid paying a pension!
“This story is so breathtakingly stupid, I had to confirm it a couple times to be sure it was not a hoax.”
This seems to be a time for things like that. It seems more and more difficult to determine fact from fiction these daze.