Great story, great ending….but sadly all stories of this nature do not end well.
Back in the mid-sixties a friend and I went to New Mexico deer hunting, at the last minute my truck broke down so we ended up driving his station wagon. After the hunt we were headed home when we were hit by a major snow storm just West of Ft. Sumner, we continued on our way since the snow was supposed to end around the Texas border. A few miles East of Ft. Sumner we saw a young man and girl hitchhiking, normally we would not have picked them up since there were so many dope smoking hippies (love children) on the road, but my buddy gave in and stopped, they loaded in the back seat and away we went. A few miles down the road as we neared to spot in the road named Melrose they said they wanted out and were going north to San Rosa, Jim pulled over , they gathered their gear and got out. About a mile down the road my friend ask me to check and see if his camera was still on the back seat, I looked but could not find it so he stopped and we both looked to no avail. He turned the car around and drove back to where we had dropped the couple off, as we drove up I seen the guy throw something in a snow bank along a fence row. I got out of the car and walked over while my friend got out with his .44 mag and confronted them. I saw the strap to the camera case, picked it up and gave it to my friend, immediately the girl started crying and said “I told him not to take it.”. He told the couple to get back in the car, they loaded up, my friend then drove a mile or so to where a county road exited to the south, he turned and drove about two-three miles, told the guy to take off his shoes and get out, he said I will leave your shoes at the highway intersection. We turned around and headed back to the highway, he stopped and dropped the guys shoes, we then headed toward Clovis. The girl was in a panic, she didn’t know what was about to happen to her. Jim drove to Clovis, stopped and asked for directions to the bus station, took the girl in and bought her a ticket to some place in Colorado. We headed for home and didn’t think that much more about the incident until one day a Sheriff’s deputy came to my friend’s place of work and assested him. Jim was sent back to Ft. Sumner, NM and charged with reckless endangerment. He ask the DA about filing charges against the guy for stealing the camera, the DA said he would look into it. When things were finally hashed out my friend got off with probation but it cost him almost $6000. in court cost and lawyer fees, as well as the loss of pay for being absent from his job for three weeks.
While talking to the DA I was informed that had we brought them back to the sheriff in Ft Sumner .they would have been locked up and charged with theft (since the camera was worth over $500. it would have been a felony.) The DA said he really didn’t want to prosecute the case but there was some political influence from the boy’s family who were big business people in NM..
It’s good to see the gun dealer got his justice, but justice is not always as fair and swift as it may look in the beginning.