For five years we have had copies of GunNews “disappear” from the local grocery store in Petersburg, IL.  In the past six months, the problem has grown dramatically, almost to the point where we put out a stack of GunNews in our rack and somehow they magically end up in the trash can adjacent to our rack within a day or two.

We decided to take a more proactive approach, and with management’s consent, we have obtained videos of one particular man grabbing entire bundles of GunNews and discarding them.  We need your help to identify him.

We published it in this issue of GunNews as well.

He doesn’t respect others’ First Amendment rights, either.
This man likes to grab stacks of GunNews from a County Market store in Petersburg, IL and throw them in the trash… for months now. We are seeking his identity to pursue felony criminal charges and civil damages as well. If you know who this man is, please contact Guns Save Life’s President Ryan Sweeney at eightsweeneys@gmail.com or Executive Director John Boch at jboch@gunssavelife.com.

He walks into the frame, does a witness check (classic pre-criminal behavior, by the way) and then grabs a whole bundle of GunNews and throws them in the nearby trash can.

Here’s two of our videos of this fellow.

From this issue GunNews (which should be appearing in mailboxes and displays within the next day or three):

This man frequents the County Market Store in Petersburg, IL around 5:20-5:30pm on many weekdays. In videos, he is seen doing a “witness check” before grabbing the whole stack of GunNews and throwing them in a nearby trash can.

This man-child has done this many, many times in past weeks and months. We’re tired of it.

Pay attention to the distinctive reddish-framed sunglasses that no doubt he’ll still be wearing with the cooler weather. Other distinctive features: we believe he may be left-handed and he is likely unmarried. He’s quite bald and keeps his wispy hair fairly short and favors plain blue jeans for pants. He doesn’t tuck in his shirts, either.

He keeps his phone (possibly a Samsung) in his front right pants pocket and his (thin) wallet or something similar in his rear left pocket. In addition to the receding hairline, he has a very short beard or heavy 5:00 shadow in many of our videos.

Guns Save Life is offering $500 for the first person who can give us the correct identification of this individual. We will forward that information to law enforcement and our attorney for both criminal and civil action. Yes, we plan on filing a civil suit against this man for his willful criminal actions against our members.

Do you recognize this man who hates gun rights so much that he’s willing to commit a felony to suppress others’ First Amendment rights? Tell us his name or help us identify him.

Give us his identity and help us to make him famous, not only locally, but nationally.

While GunNews is a free publication, it’s free for people to take one or two.   It’s not free for an individual to take a whole bundle and discard them in the trash.  That’s called theft, or in the vernacular of the Illinois General Assembly, unlawful conversion.

And because he walked into a building intending to commit this unlawful conversion, that’s felony burglary.  Each time we have him on video.

    (720 ILCS 5/19‑1) (from Ch. 38, par. 19‑1)
    Sec. 19‑1. Burglary.
    (a) A person commits burglary when without authority he knowingly enters or without authority remains within a building, housetrailer, watercraft, aircraft, motor vehicle as defined in the Illinois Vehicle Code, railroad car, or any part thereof, with intent to commit therein a felony or theft. This offense shall not include the offenses set out in Section 4‑102 of the Illinois Vehicle Code.
    (b) Sentence.
    Burglary is a Class 2 felony. A burglary committed in a school or place of worship is a Class 1 felony.

 

 

 

 

69 thoughts on “WANTED: Help us ID this man stealing and trashing GunNews”
  1. It seems like there may be challenges with this argument in court: “it’s free for people to take one or two. It’s not free for an individual to take a whole bundle and discard them in the trash”

    1. Read my write up further down for a more in depth description of why you would be wrong in your assumption.

  2. Oh, Brandon.

    You are about to feel the wrath of JBoch and Guns Save Life buddy. Embrace the suck, cause it is rolling downhill your way.

  3. Good luck. You distribute a free paper. You do not and cannot limit the number of copies one takes or what he does with them afterward.

    CUTE to dox him, cause it IS a dick thing to do, but you won’t be likely to get a prosecution and, if you do, you will definitely not get a conviction.

    You’ve shamed him. Enough already.

    1. oh dear guess who, try again. This time use some common sense. Perhaps you need to grow up like the incel in the vids. Perhaps the individual and you need to learn to respect the rights and property of others. There have been and will be more prosecutions of folks who do things like this. smh

    2. Unfortunately you are wrong. Read my write up further down on the legality of what you THINK is true vs what is actually true.

  4. “It seems like there may be challenges with this argument in court: “it’s free for people to take one or two. It’s not free for an individual to take a whole bundle and discard them in the trash””

    Yea, this guy is stealing from people who want to read it knowing and with full intent what he is doing is the tragedy of the commons, and he is the common tragedy.

  5. I just love that somebody decided to use real cameras instead of the potatoes that most places use, then want people to identify a vague human shaped blob. 😀

  6. Those questioning how something free can be stolen are incorrect in their assumption that they cannot.

    The fact that they are free is irrelevant to the idea of ownership. They are still under ownership of another. Proprietary rights come into play here. The newspaper itself, in this case GunsSaveLife holds proprietary ownership of the newspapers. They then turn over that ownership to the store where they are displayed for distribution (or the store allows them to display for distribution and retain ownership.) Even though the papers are free, that does not mean they cannot be appropriated and does not require adverse interference to be considered theft. This would fall under the same circumstances as someone leaving a box of clothing outside of a charity. Those clothes are not free despite the fact that if they were in the charity you could walk in and acquire them for free. They have proprietary ownership of the person dropping them off, and then ownership by the charity. Someone walking up and taking the box of clothing, or items of clothing within that box are guilty of theft and can be prosecuted thusly.

    There is also a social contract, which may be a bit nebulous but does exist. The proprietor grants simple permissions to the public to take and read the newspaper and perhaps one or two copies for their friends. However if that person were to take an unreasonable number of copies, then they go beyond those simple permissions and again, into theft laws. Especially when those unreasonable number of copies are not used in the way intended. IE: thrown in the garbage 2 feet from the display. So then it would come down to whether those actions were thought to be dishonest by a judge/jury. That is an objective thing and would be decided on the basis of whether an ordinary and decent person or reasonable person would have acted in the same manner. In this case it is pretty clear that they would not.

    It is POSSIBLE that a judge would see it differently, but unlikely. This should be an open and shut case of theft and I would expect him to be fined rather handsomely.

    1. INteresting that, while your screed is couched in terms of “law,” there is NOTHING but opinion in it.

      Think of it as the sham “impeachment” “hearings” going on in the U.S. House right now. There isn’t a LICK of evidence there that’ll be admissible in the Senate trial, if ever there is one.

      Cite one law.

      Cite one case.

      Anything other than your opinion.

      I dare ya.

    2. Coming Up v. City and County of San Francisco

      California and Maryland have laws very specific to free newspaper theft. A few other states as well. It is also cited as a form of censorship in those laws.

      If you have access to case law for any of those states you will find more cases. So……

    3. Also look at a recent case of student newspapers being stolen at Radford University in Virginia.

      “The Student Press Law Center wrote that according to its guidelines, “the theft of newspapers is legally a crime, even if they’re available to students for free, because it deprives the rightful owner of their property. In the case of free newspapers, the property is knowledge and the owner is the community.””

    4. You cite random cites (without any case citation) from foreign jurisdictions and go “BOOM!”

      And call ME a douchenozzle?

      Son, we’re talking about ILLINOIS.

      California statutory and caselaw will NOT apply here.

      now who’s the douche? MMMMMHHHHMMMM!

      CITE ILLINOIS LAW or you’re irrelevant.

    5. First off, douchenozzle… I didn’t call you a douchenozzel. That was Dave. I know your IQ is pretty low, but do try to pay attention and keep up.

  7. As Christians we should forgive this fool and understand he has already been punished. God Bless.

    1. We shall forgive. After he’s paid damages and learned his lesson. Even if that means his income gets garnished for the next few years.

      We won’t forget.

    2. P.D.Robertson,
      How exactly has this idiot been “punished”? Forgive? How about he grovel and beg forgiveness, supply restitution, community service? How about his image be used for target practice?

    3. How would using his image for target practice punish him? All it seems to do is confirm your desire to shoot this person. – A very childish desire, mind you.

    4. His image on a target would not “punish” him, but, it would be similar to having Hillary’s image on a target, or even Barack Hussein’s image on a target, pure satisfaction, and, why does an image on a target confirm a desire to shoot or kill anyone? a target is a target, an image is an image. Now, IF this scumbag were tied securely to a post and used for target practice that would be a different story, but I specifically said “his image”. No different than using your ex’s picture to throw darts at, pure satisfaction.

  8. You have to admit, a group of gun enthusiasts so thirsty for revenge is fairly terrifying. I’m sure this gentleman is rightly scared. Would y’all feel so violated if this man had been destroying the Auto Trader, or the Illinois Times? It might be a minor crime to tamper with free propaganda but in no way is as large of an issue as freedom of speech being stifled. Chill out, bro!

    1. This isn’t a “group of gun enthusiasts thirsty for revenge”. If it was “revenge” they wanted then the miscreant in question would probably already have, at least, a black eye. This is a group of like minded Americans who are obviously upset and talking about taking the appropriate legal action against the perpetrator. Maybe you should go back and re-read the comments. You should also try not to project so much.

      I would like to think that the ownership of the Auto Trader, Illinois Times or any other free paper would be equally as incensed if the same was done to them. They then, in turn, would likely put out an equivalent plea to their readership. There would likely be enough decent people amongst their readers who would also be annoyed, to say the least, and they would help out.

    2. What’s really funny is the high dudgeon you’re all in over some clown’s misguided attempt to deny John Boch the revenue he gets from selling overpriced 1″ column ads to limp-penis product advertisers. Whoopie!

      WOULD YOU be as irate if it were AutoTrader or News-Gazette?

      Nah.

    3. To guess WHO,
      We would feel the same if were any other paper. This sack of K9 excrement is wilfully attempting to deny a group of over 20,000 people their 1st Amendment right with one illegal act. Let’s see the the bzg if turds face some real jail time!

    4. Mr. Eastwood Sr.,
      I am sure IF you put half as much effort into a product that you would then offer for free to spread a message you consider so dear to your life experience as the Second Amendment to our foundational constitution as those who work to combine articles for this grass roots publication do, you would be considerably disgusted with the kinds of actions this miserable excuse for a human exhibited with his destruction of these copies of Gun News just because he doesn’t like the printed speech inside.

      Revenge? How about justice? Those of us that strongly believe in our foundational Constitution believe strongly in “justice for all” as spoken in our “Pledge of Allegiance” to our Great Nation, how about you? Do you believe in justice? Or do you even have enough pride in country for the rights of others?

    5. This isn’t “gun enthusiasts thirsty for revenge” — This is fiercely law-abiding people thirsty for even a little bit of justice against bigoted prejudiced asshats.

      Now I don’t know this particular asshat, but it seems as if many people here do. And Bill is right – If we were “thirsty for revenge” and this many people know him….

  9. Folks this has been going on at this location for almost five years. We believe it is happening in other locations too.

  10. I want to address the person that believes we should not have outed this individual that has been trashing papers and attacking our Bill of Rights.

    The left in this country has been attacking and doxing people on our side for almost 4 years. People have lost their jobs families have been broken up all because the Godless left is evil to the bone.

    Its time our side says no to these constant attacks.

    These papers represent the intellectual property of GSL and their members. They are provided as a public service of our collective rights. If the Incel doesn’t like the 2A that is his problem. What he is doing is violating our Collective Civil Rights.

    I hope GSL takes this individual to court and gets some form of justice.

  11. To guess WHO,
    We would feel the same if were any other paper. This sack of K9 excrement is wilfully attempting to deny a group of over 20,000 people their 1st Amendment right with one illegal act. Let’s see the the bag of turds face some real jail time!

  12. The best way to protect gun rights right now is to prevent mass shootings. Mass murder by psychopaths with guns is the worst thing to happen to peoples’ perception of the 2nd amendment. Let’s put our efforts where they’re most useful. Remember, if enough people become scared of getting shot while in public, the “right” to bear arms quickly turns into a “threat” to the public. We gotta do a better job!

    1. And ….. your “solution” to preventing “mass shootings” is? Without infringing on the Constitutional RIGHTS enumerated in the Constitution, ….?
      (crickets chirping?)
      The best remedy against a criminal mass murderer is an armed law-abiding citizen. Police are utilized after the fact and at least minutes away when the criminal acts are performed.

    2. Prevention! This magazine has a terrific platform to stress that sick individuals should have access to help before they kill people with guns and make guns look bad! Ask the questions: Why are people using guns to commit mass murder? What can we do to prevent these people’s senseless urge to murder?

    3. Soccer-dimwit:

      Why are people (misguided criminals) using guns to commit mass murder? …They do not have the spiritual guidance in their lives that the communist liberals have managed to remove from young lives, with no spiritual moral direction these “lost souls” are influenced by the criminal and hateful element of society, including the video “games” that glorify mass shootings and mass murder.

      What can we do to prevent these people’s senseless urge to murder? How about permitting God and moral teachings back into the life experience of younger generations? How about teaching moral citizenship and the respect of all others’ rights to life, including and especially the unborn? With so little respect for life from conception forward, there is less respect for ALL life.

      How do YOU identify the “sick individuals” in a free society before they take up arms to murder others “Mr. prevention”?

  13. GSL, please keep us informed on the progress of this case. If a settlement is reached in the civil suit, please resist any attempts to keep the details secret. This is the sort of case that should be widely cited.

  14. We expect some action Monday, but there are several incidents going on tonight involving a woman with a gun, an incident at McD’s and a possibly kidnapped kid. In Menard and Sangamon counties. Thus law enforcement may be delayed on this case.

  15. Serve community service by standing in front of the paper stand and hand out one copy at a time to each person that request ONE . How cold is winter there ?

    1. What you just said is a Brilliant idea.

      If any one you that once served in the military still has your military Dress Uniform. Please contact GSL and “Please” volunteer to stand in your Uniform and pass out papers at these stores to those leaving.

      If asked why you are passing out papers say “that you served wearing the Uniform of our nation to Protect the Rights of the people” and that you are now wearing the Uniform to remind people of the value of those rights” and explain how these rights are under attack in our State today”

    2. I have, in fact, spent time handing out issues of GunNews. Unfortunately, it’s been 20+ years since I’ve worn my dress uniform. The thing must be defective. It doesn’t fit anymore.

  16. Local PD is busy, and Holiday coming up. It took 18 months to get this guy multiple times, so we can wait a little longer.

  17. Whole lot of interest on this article. Wow. Just don’t let it grow cold we need to follow it thru. Make an example out of it and let everybody as in ( Democrat’s ) know that if they do it they’re gonna get caught and it won’t be funny they’ll be punished too

  18. Here’s the news…… I’ve held my comments long enough

    All these guys are blowing smoke out their rear

    There are no charges here, nothing to prosecute, no laws broken.

    I am not saying what he did was right, or excusable, BUT to claim you are going to press charges, or that he will catch a conviction over this, is just ludicrous. GSL, your ignorance and small mindedness is showing, again. Grow up and get over it. Stop wasting local LE resources on this childish endeavor. Let the LE concentrate on real issues and needs.

    Haters, say whatever you want. Argue with me, tell me how I am wrong, and that you are more intelligent than me and superior to me. Deny,deny,deny me, BUT, mark my words
    Nothing of measure will come from this
    EXCEPT,

    GSL being $500.00 lighter….BTW who was the recipient of the “Reward”???

    This train is headed straight to Chumpville…… All intelligent folk…Time to jump off.

  19. This really angers me. I had the most dangerous delivery route for GSL (Iraq 2005) and here’s this fat s-bag in America denying my fellow citizens their First Amendment rights.

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