Ex-detective charged with stealing guns

WHITEVILLE — "A former Tabor City detective has been indicted on charges that he took two handguns from police evidence and pawned them.

Barry Neal, 36, was indicted Aug. 8. He was arrested the next day.

He is accused of taking a 9mm pistol on Dec. 7 and a .45-caliber handgun on Feb. 22.

Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives noticed the handguns while conducting an audit of the pawn shop, which was being sold, according to the indictment.

The guns were involved in cases that were no longer pending in the courts, and no active cases were jeopardized, Tabor City Police Chief Donald Dowless said.

Neal resigned from the Police Department on July 7. He went to work briefly for a private security company, Dowless said.

Neal previously had been demoted from lieutenant detective to detective.

Neal served as acting chief of the department for nearly seven months, from September 2002 through early April 2003. He was hired by the department in December 2000."

Amazes me how the BATF-U manages to nab this particular felon with a badge, but has yet to come up with any of the hundreds of weapons stolen by cops during the Katrina fiasco. Sure, the locals said that California police officers seemed to be the worst offenders, but how is it that secondhand word of mouth knows more about where the Big Easy guns went than the Feds do. Some say that many if not most of the stolen firearms were simply kept as souvenirs and trophy's of the day the cops got to play Mad Max Goes To New Orleans, but surely some of these guns can be found then returned to their rightful owners. Right?