I have an older savage bolt action .22LR that has been in my possesion for like 4-5 yrs. It belong to a friend but when he got a divorce he asked me to hold on to it. Shortly after his divorce he broke almost all contact with his old life..

I tried talking to him (locating him) via phone. no luck
his number is not listed
has changed his job
still in the same city
Ran into him about 2yrs ago and told him to come pic up his .22 he said ok and thanks for holding on to it...

Well I still have the .22 I dont want to sell it as its a good training gun for new shooters. But i am going to move in the next 6 months. I will continue to try to return it but when I move (out of state) I dont want to be labled a thief.

I will return it to him if I find him.....

Sounds like you don't know where he lives.

Posession is 9 tenths!  If you can't return it to him... it is yours when you move.  He obviously does not want it.  

Quoted: I have an older savage bolt action .22LR that has been in my possesion for like 4-5 yrs. It belong to a friend but when he got a divorce he asked me to hold on to it. Shortly after his divorce he broke almost all contact with his old life.. I will return it to him if I find him.....

Then it's not yours.

I once had a parts car I was selling. I had a guy from out of state call about it. We made a deal for it, and he paid me the money. Well it turned out that every time he wanted to come get the thing, something on his end would come up and he couldn't get it done. We kept in touch for a number months, and then all of a sudden he stopped returning phone calls and e-mails. Finally, after not hearing from him for almost 9 months, I re-listed the car on the same web-sites that I had used before. I had hoped that he would have seen it, and said "Hey, I'll be out to get it strait away." Well that never happened, and I sold the car a SECOND time. I never heard from the guy again, so I don't feel bad about taking his money. There's only so much you can do, and then you just have to say "f**k it". If you don't get in touch with the guy in the next 5 months, sell the thing and move along with your life.

Quoted: Quoted: I have an older savage bolt action .22LR that has been in my possesion for like 4-5 yrs. It belong to a friend but when he got a divorce he asked me to hold on to it. Shortly after his divorce he broke almost all contact with his old life.. I will return it to him if I find him..... Then it's not yours.

Ok so what if I said I wouldnt return it to him would it make it mine then???

Ummm... I think it's mine.

Could you please return it?  

Its yours.
If you told him to pick it up, he knows were it is, still hasnt picked it up in two years, he gave it to you.

he doesn't care about the rifle. If he did he would have done something about it.  how can you just forget about a gun that long?  

Quoted: he doesn't care about the rifle. If he did he would have done something about it.  how can you just forget about a gun that long?

Well the gun finacialy speaking is only worth about $80 so I can see how it might not be important but it was grandads .22 then dads.22 then his .22 I would think he would want it. But i dont want to move and have it found out the it was reported stolen and have to go through all the mess to show that I didnt steal it or whatnot. bBut I also dont want to sell it or just throw it away.

Send him a check for $80. In the memo field write "for your .22". If he cashes the check, then you have verifiable proof that he sold you the gun.

ETA -

Also, I don't think that any judge or jury is ever going to convict you of possessing a stolen firearm or theft in this case. He left the gun with you for 5 years and rebuffed your repeated attempts to return it. I think that you can safely assume that the gun is yours.

Keep it and if he ever shows up looking for it tell him you surrendered it to the police in a gun buy-back.  

Tell him that you went boating.. and it fell overboard.

It's abandoned property.  If you can't reach him after making a reasonable effort, don't worry about it.

16 years ago I had a friend leave a nice 870 12ga with me. I saw him a couple of times afterwards, then he disappeared. No more contact. I heard through the grapevine that he moved out of state. I still have the 870 after all these years. I've never shot it and seeing as it doesn't take much room in the safe, I don't give it any thought.

If he ever wants it back, it's his and he can have it.

Until that time, it just sits in the safe. Now if it was a large, useless item that got in my way, I'd have gotten rid of it after a few years, but a long gun doesn't take much room.

I really wish he'd pick up the shotgun just so I could see my old friend again. He was a good friend.

Use it but until he gives it to you it belongs to him.

track him down and return it immediately

thats what I would do

Ive tried and tried Ill just store it till I die... use it once in a while keep it clean and ready to return to him in the future. If I knew where he lived Id go drop it off to him.

It's his property in your care.

That is the agreement you accepted.

Now, you are under NO obligation to find him or maintain contact. Move without concern and enjoy the use of the rifle (which he shouldn't mind), but remember it is not yours to sell or discard.