Internet cannonsellers make the news

[cannonmn]

Believe it or not I almost got mixed up in this, I saw the Napoleon advertised online, checked my records and saw that it had been the property of Petoskey, MI.  I called the town hall and was transferred to the person who I was told was in charge of such things, and asked if they once had a cannon that is now missing, to make sure it wasn't "hot."  She told me she knew nothing about any cannons, and no the town never had one.  That was over a year ago.  Fortunately I found out about overseas online cannon merchants and didn't go any further.  My lesson here is that you have to make sure you are talking to someone who is knowledgeable-I should have known, if she knew nothing about any town cannon, I needed to talk to someone else.  The other thing to do if you are planning on buying the type of cannon that was often donated by the gov't (includes all Civil War cannons) make very certain the person you are dealing with has "clear title" to the property.  Verify that, and get a receipt after you verify their address etc.  Put a clause in the bill of sale that if the cannon turns out not to be theirs with "clear title" and the cannon is legally repossessed by authorities or legal action, then the seller must refund your money.  Such a clause would be legally enforceable in most places.  If they won't sign up to that, don't buy it.

http://www.petoskeynews.com/news/article_a51db076-c8b3-11de-bd6f-001cc4c03286.html

[Cannoneer]

Yeah, that Napoleon has been offered for sale on the cannonsuperstore/bronzecannons site for some time now; but the way those city workers were about to transport the tube, whoa, I'm glad the video ended, I was starting to cringe.

[guardsgunner]

cannonmn,
     Thanks for posting this. Interesting.   The stolen cannons from Gladinwin Michigan were just recovered a couple of years ago.

Bob.