Minneapolis officer's car stolen, gun inside
Jim Adams - Found on 10/10/02

Minneapolis police officer Robert Dehn had a rude surprise when he
walked out of his Blaine home early Tuesday to drive to work in his
unmarked squad car.

It was gone.

"My jaw hit the driveway," he said.

Worse, his .357-caliber Magnum revolver had been stowed inside.

Dehn, 56, an officer for 27 years, said he tucked it under the driver's 
seat Monday afternoon when he stopped to shop on the way home from
his school-liaison job.

He had been wearing the gun under his sport jacket, which he had taken
off. It was too warm to put on the jacket, so he stowed the gun rather
than carry it in plain view. So the loaded revolver, which his retired 
father had used as a sheriffs deputy, was gone.

He imagined "every officer's worst nightmare: Your gun is stolen 
and used to shoot another cop," he said. His worries produced a
migraine that was subsiding only Tuesday night.

First, he called his wife to see whether she had happened to see his
car, a Chevrolet Malibu, when she left for work.

No, she said, she hadn't paid much attention to it, and wondered why
he asked.

He explained, and she, like his boss, Sgt. Mary Hanson, was horrified.
Dehn quickly called Blaine police "so officers on the street would
know what they were dealing with if they found somebody in the vehicle."

Dehn drove his personal car to work at Washburn high School in
south Minneapolis. But he came home early in case the car had been
found and he might be needed to identify it.

After driving around his neighborhood near Madison St. and 125th
Lane NE, he parked at home and walked nearby streets. Within 20
minutes of looking, he found it about 2 p.m., less than two blocks
from his home.

He notified Blaine police and anxiously waited for them to arrive
and look for the gun. After checking the car, an officer asked Dehn
where he left it.

"I told him. He said, 'It's still there.' My heart went..." Dehn
paused and let out a sigh of relief.

The car had only minor brush scratches. That puzzled him because
he had left it locked and expected to find break-in damage. He 
speculated that the thief may have dumped the car after seeing
the police radio or the Minneapolis Police Department label on
his black leather jacket in the back seat.

Dehn said police rules require officers to keep their weapons
secure in their car or home, and he hasn't heard anything yet
about possible discipline.

He still hadn't told his dad, Lamonte Dehn, about almost losing
the handgun his father carried for years as a Hennepin County
deputy.

When his dad hears, Dehn said: "I expect some tail-kicking 
around the block."


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