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NBC Chicago
When opening a book donated to the Porter County Public Library last week, an employee found it hollowed out with a historic-looking handgun inside.
VALPARAISO, Ind. -- There's quite a tale that goes with a book donated to the Valparaiso branch of the Porter County Public Library this week, and it's got nothing to do with fiction.
An employee cracking open a copy of Robert Stone's "Outbridge Reach" found the book hollowed out with a historic-looking handgun inside, Valparaiso police said.
Read the original report | More from NBCChicago.com
The weapon was described by police as a gold, wooden handle, A.S.M. brand, .31-caliber, single shot, black powder gun.
Due to the volume of donations received by the library, officials said there's no way to know from whom the book came.
Police said, however, the gun hadn't been reported stolen.
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I'll start with the discussion(1st lol) why not "The Catcher in the Rye" ? What significance did this book have to that era of weapon?
Wish I could be so lucky! I imagine the size of the book had the most to do with it.
sounds right to me...but both are probably cheap kits...
if that gun is not a copy, but a orginal it is worth a lot of money, i guess the person donating it did not do much reading.
First off, it never happened in a Illinois library. Valparaiso is in Porter County Indiana. Good reporting.
Thank you; took the words right out of my mouth.
one like it went for 51 bucks and 15.00 s&h at gunauction, as for the "gold" try gold colored brass.
as for the NJ part....bet it would apply to chicago as well, but only if ya got caught.
This gun is most likely what is referred to as a modestly priced replica and was manufactured abroad some 30 or 40 years ago. If it were an original, depending on the condition it could be considered by some to be a collectors item.
This is much ado over nothing.
My God people where are you imaginations? I swear I expected more of a what if this was the gun used to shoot some famous Republican. You guys are no fun.
I hope that if the gun goes to auction they would include the book.
Looking at the book in the picture it looks like the book was factory made with the hollowed out area to hide stuff. You can see a metal piece on the cover of the book and a magnet in where the pages are. This is not a book but a hiding place to look like a book.
Originally published in 1992 so it has not been there that long.....
This clearly points out the need for conducting background checks for the issuance of library cards, and imposing waiting periods before loaning books.
These hidden compartment books are available made from real books. There is a company that will make one out of your book that you supply to them. They are actually pretty easy to make yourself too, although this one looks professionally done. As stated earlier, it's a replica gun. Toghether the gun and book are worth no more than $100.
MO
There are no famous Republicans. You must mean infamous.
A gun found in Illinois? OMG! Call in the National Guard, the state police the local police, the miliitarty and declare a state of dire emergency. Seal off all public buildings, arrest everyone on the street after 6 PM and lock down Chicago. The end of the world is right around the corner.
Your right Harold,Abe Lincoln was as infamous a tyrant as there ever was... Ah-hahahaha caught you with your pants down dumb-ass libtard...
Probably chose the book he did not value enough to avoid cutting it and unpopular enough that no one else would likely open it. The "gold" color is most likely brass, which was common for such guns. Pretty cool fine, though those guns can still be found and have only modest value.
The story of a copywriter who enters an around-the-world solo boat race... about a man pitting himself against the sea, against society, and against himself published in 1998.
First reviewed in 1992 as "Outerbridge Reach"; second publication in 1998 also as "Outerbridge Reach".
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/06/specials/stone-outerbridge.html
What message could the gun donator wish to convey? A Good Question.
The book-giver probably did not know there was a gun inside; maybe they were cleaning out an estate and just got rid of stuff.
A guy used a fake soup can to hide some expensive jewelry, forgot about it, and donated the "soup can" to the local food drive. Asked for it back after realizing his mistake, didn't happen.
Moral to the story: tell at least one person where your stuff is.
Who knows why the guy chose this particular book, but I would say there is a huge likelyhood that this gun is of historical signifigance. In those times educated men who had wealth often had personal libraries and amongst those educated men hollowed books seem to be popular hiding places for anything from booze or documents to a gun. If they were stashing a gun it is likely that they had reason to expect they may need to shoot someone in their office. The way I see it this gun has a great likelyhood that it belonged to someone of historical signifigance. Alexander grahm Bell, or a president, maybe Ben franklin, someone important.
No really now people. 1. the gun looks way to new. 2. The book isnt an old one. This is probably someone trying to make an anonymous statement or just make an uproar. But the book being about a man pitting himself against the sea, society and himself sounds like someone trying to say something to me. WHO? Who cares?
When Grandma and Grandpa pass on, and your cleaning out the house....go thru the pockets of clothing, flip thru magazines and books. My friends parents passed, and they found $5,000.00 in cash in a National Geographic magazine!! I had an Aunt that passed away, and she had hidden her diamond wedding rings in the garage next to a wall stud! My son used a knife to cut a hidy-hole in an old Readers Digest hard back...it's a fun project, just don't forget, and always tell someone.
OMG I found a gun in my holster this morning!
Does mean it's national news now?
shoot low sheriff...he's ride'n a shetland...
I've put money between pages of books before for safekeeping. Which ones? I don't remember..
I bought a "LOT" of books (3 huge boxes)at an auction for $2.50 one time and I only bought it for a book about American gangsters like Al Capone and wanted to read it and found 2 crispy $100 bill in it. When they fell out I thought they were fake book marks until I looked more closely. Someone stashed and lost $200 and I have always wondered how that happened? My 2 teenagers went though every book in the box after that and there were about 300. ha ha no more money.
This "book" is not a book it is a professionally hollowed out safe made for stashing money and looking like a book It was only published in 1992 so the gun is probably a replica from the looks of it. Someone probably boxed up an estate and boxed all the books and donated them. Happens all the time so why is this news worthy people.
Imagine, a book you can really get into,gives ya bang for your money and no characters taking cheap shots at each other.
Or maybe it was just the book easiest to hollow out?
and good place to hide your stach...rolling paper not included...
I don't know, but I'm betting whoever donated the book is kicking themselves now. I can only imagine what a collector would pay for a genuine gun in a book. :)
A.S.M. means: Armorie San Marco. This gun is an Italian made reproduction. Worth $100 at the most.
I have several A.S.M. pistols I used during my Civil War reenacting days.
Not to mention it's in a book from 1998? Kind of more a conversation piece, since they didn't use a book that would be more timely with the period.
agree with bill g sc 100 percent
as a collector the weapon in the pic don't appear as black powder to me and definitely a reproduction of something
I believe first published in 1992, paperback in 1998.
Well, there it is. Book 'em, Dano.
Lol! Capt., I am surprised that a library would not know anything about book, or were unable to research the pistol.
you got it bill as i pointed out in 1.6
got to wonder if the illinois cops threw the book at em for gun possession !
Not news! The deringer is over 100 years old and a collectore item. How stupid to call this news.
The news is the fact that they found something that didn't fit. Not front page, but definitely interesting. Likely they are just using the media, in hopes the owner wishes to come in and get it back.
It's news to me.
Its an article to read, if it is new information you never read or heard before, then it is new to you. Whether or not its news worthy is up to the readers discretion.
Nice to see an article about a gun and not have a dead body associated with it. Nice Story.
See ? that's what I was looking for a little disagreement, a little humor. TY
Not over 100 years old. It's a replica, maybe about 30 years old.
The pistol may be 30 y.o., but the book correctly titled "OutERbridge Reach" by Robert Stone was published around 1992.
http://articles.latimes.com/1992-03-01/books/bk-5284_1_outerbridge-reach
From the picture the gun safe was clearly a mass produced commercial product, likely several years later from unsold stock.
Second
Fifth.
el
post 5. and 6.
your on your secound fifth and can still type?...wow.....
You're
yourn's...would work...if you're from the south...
In a book, huh. They should have left in there for library patrons. They could use the self defense.
Since the book would have to be open, it would never have been found by the thugs in Chicago.
HAHA! HOHO! HEHE!
bet the librarian who found it gets allot more attention how when she says...sssshhhhh
They should have contacted people who donated / or let everyone who might have donated (general announcement) to contact them to identify "something" found in a book. <--------- The gun belongs to someone (may or may not still be alive). That person or relatives of should have been given the chance to claim it. A general announcement on the local news would have been a good way --- "We have found a book with something in it. The person who knows what it is and can describe it in exact detail, may have it back. We hope you contact us soon. We will not answer questions regarding the item itself. (phone number.).
Chances are, that is why they alerted the news, hoping to get the word out. Not all donors leave names and mailing address'. Some even use drop boxes.
Finders keepers. If the donor was too lazy to check through their piles of books before the donation was made, why should a library waste resources looking for someone who could be deceased? Key word is "resource". Most libraries operate on a shoestring. This article alone could bring people out to claim this gun; if they can verify ownership, then they can have it back.
Could be it was a prop from a stage play.
Years ago, during the division of property involved in a divorce, I came home from work to find that my soon-to-be-ex wife had donated a bunch my books to the King County Library. In one of them (a hardback copy of Tom Clancy's "The Sum of All Fears"), I had been stashing $100 bills between the pages for years. Literally years, every paycheck, at least two every time.
I went to the location where she had dropped the books off, and recovered the book, but no one knew anything about the money. To this day, I wonder if my ex or the librarian was the one who discovered that the "Sum" was upwards of $5,000 . . .
Years huh. If you did "at least 2 every time", that would mean only 25 times. If you did this for "years", how often did you get paid? Sounds fishy.
Yep, years. Paid every two weeks. The point is, open every book you run across, 'cause you never know what you'll find . . .
Do the math.....if he put "at least two every time" in, that's $200 each time. Most people get paid every two weeks, make that a minimum of 24 paychecks a year......so at that rate it would have been $4800 in ONE year. If Agnomad74 had actually done this for years, we're talking a book worth tens of thousands. I truly find this hard to believe because any moron packing up books to donate to the library would have realized something was up because the book would have been seriously mishapen!!! Agnomad74 must have married a BOTTLED blonde!!!
Doesn't sound fishy to me if you do the math!
OOPS! I meant to type sounds fishy. That many $100 bills between the pages of a book would separate the pages to such an extent that it would be obvious to anyone who picked it up.
C'mon, guys, I never said I didn't dip into it now and again. Who among us lives without touching their savings? I don't even know how much was in it when it left the house, other than a LOT of money . . .
But you DID say there was $5000 in it so there would have to be 50 bills and it would have stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb.
Valparaiso is in INDIANA, not Illinois. I should know, i drive there many times a week....
It's sad that NBC has gone so far down the tubes. But so has most of the other "News Sources" in this country.
No one bothered to do any Fact Checking and just assumed that it was IL because it was a Chicago based story. No where in the original story did it mention IL.
The sad part is I'm sure there are arguments going on right now over this. With the blind belief in what is posted by news sources on the internet people will go to their graves arguing about a place that doesn't exist anywhere but on the internet.
This shows why people need to go back to thinking with their own minds and "Trust but Verify" when it comes to information they get from the internet. ESPECIALLY News sources.
Trust but verify is a bunch of crap, RC - 1815349. You either trust something or you do not, sir. When you have to verify something, then that means that you do not trust it, sir. To trust something is to have faith in something and when you have faith in nothing, then that must mean a sad life indeed. However, there IS a difference between blind faith and actual faith. Sure, you could do what you do but why not wait to verify the facts until AFTER you take people at their word first?
The "Friends of the Library" should be able to find the donor , or if not I am sure plenty of Auction sites will be calling.
@ jhiltonw2: I don't know if all libraries follow the same procedure for donations, but the one I visit has a drop box in which people deposit donated books. Unless the donor has written his/her name and address in the book, there would be no way for the library to locate him/her. Likely, if the person who donated the book reads this article, he/she will contact the library . . .
Big deal, so what.
ASM is a maker of replicias. The gun is worth about $125.00 in new condition. Cool story though.
Yes, A.S.M is an italian replica maker, The book actually was not a real book either, It was a small safe made to look like a book, It actually has a key lock that can be seen in the photo. This most likely belonged to someone who has died and they had it on a bookshelf with other books and when the relatives cleaned out the home/estate they donated the books to the library, Not much of a story here.
Finally. A couple of people who know what they're looking at and talking about.
Finally? You read it on-line and you know how truthful that can be!
Who ever put that gun in there is long gone, and the people that donated the book, didn't know it was there.
this is a replica ASM made in Italy in the 1970's,he paid maybe 125.00 for the gun and maybe 50.00 for the book safe.They made thousands from what I read,but who knows for sure,maybe he was aware of misplacing the gun,but didn't have any paper work and figured it wasn't worth the hassle of trying to claim it.
they actually sell books that have been hollowed out so you can hide a gun or valuables in them. In the picture there is a latch so the book may have originally came like that.
Is it for sale?
This gun thing is Front Page news,,, for MSN,,,,,,,But 4 people killed in Bengazi,, and the cover up by the Obummer administration is ""NO WHERE"" to be found... Great reporting MSN
I was wondering why there were so few vines to comment on today. Most articles take you to a bing site.
Barnie,
Get off it already! There was no "cover-up". Quit believing what you hear on Faux News.
You can believe whatever you want but it doesn't make it true.
Go back to Bedrock fool. Always seems to be at least one damn troll who is obsessed with their own little peeve, why don't you grow up? Yeah, this means you Barnie.
Try to find all the ones police carry concealed, so they have gun they can place on the victims of the daily police shootings/killings-----All kinds of hollowed out places---
Spend a lot of time in USA courts, and you will be surprised what comes out, if they have smart people investigating their crimes!
This shows how easy it was to get a gun in the 19th century. They needed more gun control laws back then, I bet less people would have died if this assualt pistol had been off the streets! :)
Aye! 'tis mine...must go claim it. ;-)
People, read the books. Whoever donated it, never even opened it.
Shadow8088 - FYI- there is also a Valparaiso in Illinois.
Valparaiso is the county seat of Porter County, Indiana, United States. The population was 31,730 at the 2010 census, making it the second-largest city in the county. Wikipedia
You are correct Andreac51. Valparasio is in Porter County Indiana. Maybe the article writer should consider enetering the libray and reading a bit!
I would love to find out where it is. Every search I do ends up going to IN. There is a Real Estate Co that seems to think that there is one. Even the ZIP code they have listed in their listing is for IN.
I'll bet you Google searched Valparaiso, IL and saw that they showed something and declared that there was one in IL. It just shows that you can't believe everything you see on the internet and even when you see it you need to verify it.
This gun is a reproduction of a 19th century model. The "reporter" obviously didn't really investigate this. Just put it on because it involved a gun. A.S.M. stands for Armi San Marcos, an Italian manufacturer that specializes in 19th century "Old West" guns. Probably worth less than $75.
And the book is not really a book and never was, It is a small hideaway safe designed to look like a book, The latch can be seen in the photo, It is possible these were sold together as a combo.
It seems that the "reporter" wants to make a big to-do about nothing. What is found in donated books can range from anything that can fit inside in a hallowed out book along with anything that can be folded up and put inside a regular book. In the past, money has been found... historical documents and other papers signed by notable people in history...
As mentioned by many folks, Valparaiso and the Porter County Public Library is in INDIANA. The most notable person associated with the area seems to be Orville Reddenbacher... There is a bronze statue of him sitting on a bench. Personally, I think it is better than the Fonzie one in Milwaukee.
Lost,
Actually a lot of these are made from real books. Pages are glued together and then machine cut. There are some made from "fake" books, but most likely it would have been some other more noteworthy title.
Given the date of the book (1998), I'm guessing someone passed away and the library of the deceased was donated to the local library by survivors of the estate. The book was probably kept on a table or desk, within easy reach. Guns in books are not that unsual, even in this day and age, as protection. I'm guessing someone was a collector with a certian amount of wealth - this gun was not inexpensive, regardless of how or when it was obtained. If the library or the police do not keep the gun, I'm sure a local museum will gladly put it on display. A wonderful find, and excellent example of gun craftmanship.
The gun is a brass framed modern day replica made in Italy, The book safe was never a book and is a small hideaway safe designed specifically to hide items in, It is entirely possible the gun and safe were sold as a combo, Italian made black powder firearms are not low quality but they are not comparable to some of the modern day US made replicas and certainly do not have the value of an actual original period black powder firearm that they are replicas of.
Actually the hardback was published in 1992. Paperback in 1998.
Funny though, you'd think a library would be a bit more skilled at reseach to know about the book and the gun.
What I find surprising about all the comments is that no one has noticed Valparaiso, Illinois does not exist; Illinois does not have a "Porter County". There reference, should be, Valparaiso, Indiana; Porter County Indiana. etc.
It's an article about a gun. Facts are optional. Surprised it wasn't called a glock or an AK-47
And I did notice.
Oh I noticed it. I find it funny that it took 2 days for this to go national, but if it happened on the East Coast, it would have been breaking news on this site.
NBC News wonders why they are having issues with their shows, this is one example why, NBC news employees morons who do not know how to fact check at all.
Incidentally, I live near Valparaiso INDIANA, and find this neat. I have a gun in a hollowed out book in my house as well. Nice hiding place for a gun.