WEBVTT - #27 Scott 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:09.280 Let's play truth or dare? Okay, go ahead, No, Jackie, 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:11.200 you cut out. You cut out. I couldn't hear if 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:13.040 you said truth or dare? Which one did you say? 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:16.160 No, I'm not willing, I'm not interested. I don't want 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:16.919 to play. 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:21.520 Have you ever have you ever peed in a shower? 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:26.680 Tell the truth? Have you ever peed in a shower? John, Jackie. 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:28.760 That's just not a question, John. 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:29.840 Is it? 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:30.960 Because the answer is yes? 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:32.280 Affirmative? 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:34.200 Okay? Have you ever peed in a bathtub? 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:35.360 Negative? 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:37.279 You've never peed in a bathtub. 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:38.200 That's disgusting. 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:39.559 Why would you pee on yourself? 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:41.360 I'm not saying that I did. 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:41.320 You did? 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:44.320 You just said no, I didn't. Okay, Okay, you can. 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:46.240 You're surprised because. 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:48.680 I'm not in the hot seat. You are, You're. 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:50.600 Not at We're having a conversation. 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:51.519 I want to have asation. 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:53.360 We are having a conversation. Okay, you could do you 0:00:53.360 --> 0:01:07.320 want to get conversation from Gimblet Media. I'm Jonathan Goldstein 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:10.880 and this is Heavyweight Today's episode. 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:23.800 Scott. Okay, we're rolling. 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:27.000 So Scott, first of all, thank you. Maybe the thing 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:31.120 to do would go on if you're lucky. The mistakes 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:33.880 you make as you move through life, are small and harmless, 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:37.800 calling your teacher mommy, leaving gum in your jeans in 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:42.560 the wash, or talking over the person you're trying to 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:46.760 talk to. No, no, sorry, sure, hang on a second, Yeah, yeah, 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:51.440 tell me, tell me more, Scott. But the mistake Scott 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:54.440 made wasn't the small kind. It was the big kind. 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:57.920 Big because it hurt his dad, one of the people 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:01.040 Scott loves most, and he's been trying to fix that 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:05.520 mistake for the past eight years. For Scott, the story 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:08.000 all begins when he was a kid, which is when 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:09.480 he first discovered drugs. 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:12.000 The first one was weed, you know, that was when 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:15.840 I was thirteen, and then alcohol, and then it quickly 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:19.080 kind of descended from there. So I first did cocaine 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:21.679 when I was fourteen fifteen, first did meth when I 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:24.119 was about fifteen, and then I was around that same 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:25.239 time that I found opiates. 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:29.200 Scott's mom suffered from chronic pain and there were always 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.920 pills in her medicine cabinet, stuff like OxyContin and fentanyl. 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:35.800 It is this feeling of like finding a missing piece 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:38.960 to a puzzle. All of a sudden, my anxiety was gone. 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:41.760 I didn't have as much self doubt, and I was 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:45.880 able to speak my mind and connect and talk and 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:50.720 approach girls. And at the time it really felt like 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:56.160 a cheat code that I would have for life. 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:57.960 And for a while it worked. Scott graduated high school, 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:00.720 then college and found his way into job as a 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:03.960 well paid graphic designer, but he was still using drugs 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:06.680 the way he always had to manage his anxiety and 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:09.639 make friends, like the friend who got him to shoot 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:10.960 Heroin for the first time. 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:13.120 And I say friend now, but looking back on it, 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:16.680 we weren't necessarily friends at all. But he said, if 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.040 you can give me a ride to go pick up 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:21.760 some drugs, then I'll give you some for your trouble. 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:26.399 And so we're driving down I seventy. He's in shotgun. 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:28.880 I'm in the driver's seat with my arm extended out 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:31.720 over the middle part of the car as he shoots 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:36.320 me up for the first time and I instantly passed 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.320 out and kind of swerved across three lanes before he 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:41.240 grabbed the wheel, and then I kind of came back 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:50.120 to a foot away from hitting a guard rail that 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:54.040 right there just threw gasoline onto the fire. It went 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:56.280 from you know, doing it on the weekends once or 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:59.120 twice a month, to doing it every weekend, to doing 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:01.640 it every few days every other day. 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:05.240 Within a year, Scott lost his job and moved into 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:08.680 his dad's basement, back into his childhood home in Colorado. 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:11.440 He still needed to get high every day and now 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:14.560 had no money. There were boxes in the basement filled 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:17.240 with old jewelry and silverware, stuff that had belonged to 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:20.880 Scott's mom before she passed away. So Scott started stealing 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:23.560 stuff from the boxes to bring to a pawnshop down 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:26.840 the road. He figured an item or two wouldn't be missed, 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:29.680 but pretty soon it became a daily thing. 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:32.440 All the while, the voice in the back of my 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:35.599 head was still there, knowing what was right and was wrong, 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:37.919 and so I felt immense guilt. 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:40.960 Soon the boxes were empty, and Scott began to eye 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:44.960 other things, things right out in the open, things that 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:46.480 belonged to his dad. 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:48.440 So like a radio on the shelf, just right there 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:52.560 in the living room, taking that, and then a baseball 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:57.120 signed by the early thirties New York Yankees, you know, 0:04:57.160 --> 0:04:59.480 Babe Ruth and Louke Rig and everything like that. 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:02.480 Did your dad know what was going on? 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:06.080 I mean, my dad is a very unique person. He's 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:10.480 kind of like chronically petrified of direct conversations. 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:10.960 You know. 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:13.080 I remember, even as a kid, he would have me 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:15.320 order the pizza, you know, when we were ordering a 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:17.080 pizza or something like that, because he didn't want to 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:18.200 talk to the person on the phone. 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:23.040 So Scott's dad never brought up the missing stuff until 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:25.359 Scott started taking money. 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:27.240 I knew right where his checkbook was, you know, it 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:29.279 was right there on the secretary by the front door, 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:33.160 and I had a light table where I put down 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:35.240 a piece of paperwork that i'd found with his signature 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:36.520 on it, and then put the check over it and 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:37.600 kind of traced over it. 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:41.479 The checks were small, sixty dollars here and there, but 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:44.960 soon the account was thousands of dollars overdrawn. So his 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:47.560 dad had to make a decision. It was one thing 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:50.440 for a clock to go missing, another thing entirely for 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:53.400 his savings to disappear. So the man who couldn't bring 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.119 himself to pick up the phone to order pizza, picked 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:58.799 up the phone and reported his son to the police. 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:02.240 So then they piled me into the back of the 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:04.479 police car and then brought me to the jail. 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:07.920 Were you scared at this point? 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.200 I was petrified. I was petrified of the legal consequences 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:13.920 I had, but I think I was equally or more 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:16.440 petrified of the detox that I knew that was coming. 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:21.320 I remember scrawling out the hours I was sober on 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.520 a little jail house notepad that they give you, And 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:26.599 you know, I was doing three hundred dollars a day 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:29.320 of heroin at that point. So it was a really, really, 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:38.880 really bad withdraw. There was just a series of horrible 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:42.280 days where I just couldn't stop crying. I would have 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:46.600 these kind of vivid dreams of seeing family or being happy, 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:49.360 and then wake up to realize I'm still in a 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:50.000 jail cell. 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:54.200 A couple of weeks into his detention, a garbled voice 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:57.240 came over the loudspeaker. Scott had a visitor. 0:06:57.800 --> 0:06:59.440 Nobody had visited me yet, and so I thought it 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:01.640 was a mistake at first, And so I go up 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:03.680 there and there's my dad come to visit me. 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:11.280 But Scott's father wasn't there to offer support. He was 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:13.280 there to present his son with a list of all 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:17.040 the things he'd stolen. The radios, the watch collection, the 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:21.680 family silver. It was two columns containing some fifty items, 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:24.640 and at the very top of the page. 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:31.520 His most prized possession, the Luger, this German pistol that 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:34.600 my grandfather had taken off of a German in World 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:40.760 War II. This gun was something that I knew was 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:44.720 like his pride and joy. That was like the quintessential 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:47.520 memento and the biggest piece that my dad had to 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:50.960 remember his dad by. And so that was the one 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:53.320 big thing that I had promised myself that I would 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:55.920 never take, and I took it. 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:06.120 Of all the things Scott had stolen from his dad, 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.240 of all the mistakes he'd made, this is the one 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:10.360 he regrets most. 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:16.559 I've only seen my father cry when his dad passed away, 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:21.280 when my mom passed away, and in that jail when 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:23.960 he was telling me about him knowing about the gun 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:30.320 being gone. You know, this was a piece of his 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:33.280 father that he thought he would be able to hold 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:35.760 on to for the rest of his life. And I 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:38.760 sold for fourteen hundred dollars worth of drugs. 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:44.319 For four months, Scott sat in jail awaiting trial. When 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:47.280 he was finally sentenced, the judge decided to dismiss the 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:50.680 charges if Scott completed this two year treatment program that 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:54.320 was modeled on rehab programs from the seventies. Scott would 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:56.200 have to shave his head and scrub the floors with 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:57.400 a toothbrush, that. 0:08:57.480 --> 0:08:58.000 Kind of thing. 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:01.439 The judge told Scott that the roughly three hundred people 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:04.199 he'd sent there, none had made it through. 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:08.240 So that was encouraging right at the very beginning. But 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:10.959 as like, get me in, whatever I need to do, 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:12.640 I'm going to do it. 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:17.200 After two years, Scott walked out of the facility and 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:20.800 he's been clean since. He has a wife, two young kids, 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:24.080 and a job at a residential treatment facility in Colorado 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.880 where he works with addicts and their families. He's trying 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:29.760 to make up for who he used to be by 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.160 paying it forward. But there's one person he's never been 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:34.120 able to pay back. 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:38.600 I have all but forgiven myself for a lot of 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:41.280 the things that I've done in the past, but this 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:44.199 is one thing that, no matter the amount of counseling, 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:48.360 it still bothers me on the deepest level that I 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:49.640 did this to my dad. 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:53.760 So about five years ago, Scott took his dad's list 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:56.439 of the stolen items and set off to recover the 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:58.400 luger along with everything else. 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:00.800 So I went to the old ante stores that I 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:02.800 used to go to. I went to the old sports 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:05.400 memorabilia spot to see if I could track down the 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:06.680 baseball that I had sold. 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:10.960 He succeeded in getting some things back, a Crossley antique radio, 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:14.640 a Ham radio, and that Christmas with his sister, all 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:18.040 his aunts and uncles gathered round, Scott surprised his dad 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:21.640 with the items he'd recovered. Scott was feeling pretty proud 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:26.119 of himself until Uncle Bill piped up and. 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:28.840 My uncle, you know, basically says, oh, well, he's the luger. 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:30.400 In there is the luger, one of the things that 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:31.200 you were able to get back. 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:35.760 Uncle Bill was close with Scott's grandfather. Like him, he'd 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:38.920 also served in the military. He believed the luger should 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:41.720 have been his to begin with, not a little brothers. 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:46.120 And I was like, no, no, I wasn't able to 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:48.480 find that. And then that led to probably about a 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:51.520 ten minute spiel of his about how important that gun 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:54.360 was to him. And I remember the day when I 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:57.160 found out that that was stolen. It still bothers me. 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:00.480 And it was just like in the middle of Christmas 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:04.800 morning and we're handing out presents and every word that 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:08.720 he said, just like, ugh, it felt like a kick 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:09.200 in the gut. 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.080 And how do you think it made your father feel. 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:15.000 Very uncomfortable, very uncomfortable. 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:17.199 Yeah, yeah, But he's. 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:19.080 Not the type of person that would toss it back 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:19.720 in my face. 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:20.040 You know. 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.400 That's kind of my uncle's style, but not necessarily his. 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.480 Although Scott's dad didn't say anything, Scott understood that his 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:35.080 dad felt the same way as Uncle Bill, that it 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:37.680 was nice to have all those items returned, but the 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:41.240 only one he really cared about was the luger and 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:44.040 it was gone all because of Scott. 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:47.320 I know that there's still trust issues there. I know 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:51.680 that there's still pain there, and I've told him over 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:53.199 the years that I'm going to do what I can 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:55.760 to try and get it back. And I know by 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.080 the glean in his eye that that would matter quite 0:11:58.080 --> 0:11:59.960 a bit, and that if I am able to track 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:03.280 this down, it would be seismic. 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:07.640 No matter what Scott accomplishes in life or how good 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:10.920 he feels, there's always that nagging voice that cries out, 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.199 what about the luger? Were you able to get that back? 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:17.439 Even when Scott is relaxing in front of the TV, 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:20.520 if anything about World War two comes on, he has 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:23.720 to change the channel, and so Scott's come to me. 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:27.400 He wants to find his grandfather's luger and has no 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:31.680 idea where to begin. My first thought is why me? 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:36.760 Why not the guys from Firearms Chat podcast, The Reloading Podcast, 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:43.959 Wasted Ammo Podcast, Socialist Rifle Association Podcast, Concealed Carry Podcast, 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:48.199 New Shooter Canada, or gun Girl Radio, the Firearm show 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:52.320 for the Second Amendment. Woman, I'm more the wistful type 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:55.520 than the pistol type, more the pun type than the 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:58.360 gun type. Do you think we'll have to go to 0:12:58.400 --> 0:12:59.040 a gun show? 0:12:59.600 --> 0:12:59.920 I don't know. 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.880 Oh, I think it just kind of depends on where it. 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:06.840 Ended up, like the thing that's a little scary. And 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:09.400 maybe I'm completely like out of line with thinking this, 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:12.600 but is it possible like that these guns can filter 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:16.440 back into like a kind of nether world. 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:19.480 Of like Nazi sympathizer people. 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:23.959 Exactly like, yeah, it's possible. Yeah, I don't abide by 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:32.560 Nazi sympathizers, but I'm rapidly becoming a Skatzi sympathizer. As 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:35.680 Anton Chekhov once said, if a gun shows up in 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.520 the first act, it must be fired in the second 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:42.520 and that's a lot of presh. But as Jonathan Goldstein 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.280 once said, if a gun's to be fired at all, 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:48.080 please don't let it hit me in the wallet, because 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:50.440 that's where I keep the charge card I use for 0:13:50.559 --> 0:14:01.200 purchasing quality products like the ones coming your way. Not 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:04.080 knowing where to start, I spend several hours on a 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:07.800 gun collector's discussion board run by someone named Jan with 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:11.920 an iron cross for an avatar. I introduce myself to 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:14.720 my fellow gun nuts and announce that I'm looking for 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:18.840 a gun. Right away, an Internet pop up pops up, 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:21.880 telling me that my content has been blocked and to 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:29.360 quote see administrator. Immediately after the Gimblet Media HR department 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:36.520 confiscates my computer, I unholster my weapon of choice, the telephone. 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:40.560 I dial gun dealerships all over the country to seek advice. 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:43.040 It's going to be almost impossible. 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:45.280 There may not be any type of record. 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:47.760 Because it could just be in some private collector's collection. 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:49.520 It's gonna be hard for you. I'm gonna tell you 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:49.960 straight up. 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:51.920 Do you know when it was sold? 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.000 Do you have any type of serial number? 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:59.960 Of course a serial number. Scott doesn't know the serial number, 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:02.120 but he admits there's one person who. 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:05.520 Might Uncle Bill, my dad's older brother. 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:11.360 Yeah, mister Christmas Morning himself. Are you in touch with 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:11.920 your uncle? 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:16.040 I am, I mean not a ton, but I am. 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:19.880 Yeah, So maybe he would. He would be a place 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:20.400 to start. 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:35.240 Now, I'm uh, I mean, of course, there's a cloud 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:38.880 of anxiety. My chest starts tightening when I think about 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:39.680 actually doing it. 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:44.040 Shortness of breath would come next, then burning in the 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:47.960 chestel region. It was sounding to this reporter like the 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:50.280 healing process had already begun. 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:53.240 But maybe we could both do it. Yeah, we could 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:54.440 do a three person call. 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:58.160 So with me on the line as this emotional defibrillator, 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:00.000 Scott dials up Uncle Bill. 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:12.360 Bill Good. After that Bill, Hello, Uncle Bill, how are you? 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:15.080 I'm good, mister Goldstein. 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:22.080 Yeah, Hi. After Scott and I jockey over who will 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:25.800 hide behind who's petty coats? Scott boldly peers out from 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:29.280 behind my petty coats and asks Uncle Bill about the 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:30.080 serial number. 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:32.800 I believe it had a fairly low serial number, but 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.760 unfortunately we never took a photo of the writing on 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:37.119 the inside of the holster. 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:40.080 So you don't have the serial number. 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:41.200 I do not. 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.480 But the moment we bring up the gun. It's Christmas 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:47.040 Morning all over again. 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:52.600 It's a piece of history of his history. That was 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.200 part of what formed him to be the man that 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.720 I knew. And that's about all we have from him 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:01.560 from that era, and now we don't have that. 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:12.000 When Uncle Bill speaks to the gun, it's as though Scott, 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:16.320 the person responsible for its disappearance, isn't there, even when 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:17.920 he pipes up to defend himself. 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:22.879 The gun disappeared to help beat his habit, and I 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:25.920 was royally pissed at him. 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:27.400 Yeah, I paid off every cent. 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:29.120 I'm happy with his dad either. 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:30.159 You know. 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:31.920 It wasn't like I was going to go and beat 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:34.800 him up or anything, but I was pissed that he 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:36.680 felt the need to quote, keep it safe, and then 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:39.199 he didn't keep it safe. 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:41.800 Do you still feel like you fault your brother for that? 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:44.760 Somewhat? 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:50.440 Now? 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:54.080 The reality of World War two vents is that they 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:58.080 didn't really like to talk about the war. We didn't 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:03.640 have PTSD as doss. The damage was usually doubtless with alcohol, 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:07.000 and he a loveful lot of them drank too much, 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:08.680 and that's how they self medicated. 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:14.560 After the war. Scott's grandfather became an alcoholic. He spent 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:16.639 his days in an easy chair with a glass in 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:18.960 his hand, and in the evenings he kept a bottle 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:21.520 of whiskey on the nightstand to make sure he didn't 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:25.240 wake up in a withdrawal Like the Luger. It seems 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:28.480 addiction has also been a part of Scott's family for decades. 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:36.119 Before getting off the phone, Uncle Bill does offer a 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:39.320 couple helpful bits of information. He tells us that the 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:42.199 Luger was a mouser and that returning World War II 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:46.879 soldiers were often issued something called bring back papers, documents 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:50.280 detailing any items they took home. If he could find 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:53.480 those papers, Bill says there's a chance the gun's serial 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.840 number might be there. He also says that if anyone 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:00.760 has the bringback papers, it'd be Scott's older sister, Mary, 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:05.240 the family record keeper and also one of Scott's biggest supporters. 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:08.600 She's a good person and an honest one. 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:11.040 When Scott was in jail, Mary was the one who 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:14.440 visited most, gave him money for the commissary, and helped 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:17.399 him with his court case. When I explained the length 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:20.359 Scott's going through to get their dad's gun back, Mary 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:23.679 becomes emotional. The whole thing reminds her of a story 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:27.000 from when they were kids. Mary Scott and their dad 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:28.120 had gone out shopping. 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:32.160 He accidentally stole a bookmark from the store, just because he. 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:33.800 Thought we had paid for it and we hadn't, and 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:35.200 he cried all the way home and. 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:36.680 Made us go all the way back to the store 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:38.520 almost an hour away, to return it. 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:42.400 Mary still sees her little brother as the same well 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:45.800 meaning kid who's trying to make things right. She's not 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.439 sure she has the bringback papers, but wants to help, 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:51.880 so over the weekend she digs through their grandfather's old stuff. 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:56.440 She finds wartime postcards, letters to their grandmother, photos of 0:19:56.480 --> 0:20:00.159 their grandfather and his army buddies huddled in fox holes. 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:04.520 And then she found the actual document, the Bringback Papers. 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:06.560 Holy cow, Okay, so. 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:10.000 What and now it's pretty crazy. 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:14.000 Yeah, it's yellowing with it almost looks like it as 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:16.800 a coffee stains right through the middle. And then it 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:21.359 has just written in underneath it Luger pistol cerial number 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:22.560 four five nine. 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:32.240 WOWI hi Giovanni, how are you Johnson? I'm good? How 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:32.560 are you? 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:34.080 I'm doing well, doing well? 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:37.840 I get Giovanni's number from another gun dealer who tells 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:39.800 me that if I'm looking for a World War two 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:44.119 era luger, Giovanni is my man. Giovanni owns one of 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:48.000 Colorado's largest historical firearm shops and is something of an 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:52.000 expert in lugers, and so armed with the serial number, 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:55.280 I get ready to make some headway. The serial number 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:56.600 is four or five nine? 0:20:58.160 --> 0:20:58.520 Okay? 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:03.760 No, you have any incomplete? Say on them. 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:08.120 Giovanni explains that luger's serial numbers have both numbers and letters, 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:10.600 so there could be a four five nine, A four 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:14.240 five nine B and so on. I re examined the 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:15.400 scan Scott sent me. 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:16.480 But no letter. 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:20.440 How many four five nine serial number guns are there? 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:29.600 Probably out there lugers probably about. 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:31.359 It could be one hundred. 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:36.320 Hoping to narrow the pool, I tell Giovanni it wasn't 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:40.280 just any luger, It was a mouser. Does that give 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:45.080 you an okay? So, in giving you that serial number, 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:46.720 it's not like you can look it up in a 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:47.920 database or anything. 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:49.720 No, oh, absolutely not. 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:50.560 No. 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:55.160