re: Are stolen pistols ever recovered?

I have a buddy that lives in Central, his truck was broken into and his pistol was stolen. About 9 months later he gets a call from Baker pd telling him that they have his pistol and letting him know the proper paperwork and shite to get it back. He does his part and calls the Baker police back a couple days later to go pick up his gun, they proceed to tell him that they don’t have it anywhere. Since he had the proper paperwork they bought him a brand new pistol.