SAN ANTONIO (KABB/WOAI) – A woman has been fighting the China Grove Police Department for almost four years to retrieve property she says was unfairly taken from her family.
Brandy Napier lives in Seguin, but she and her husband have family they visit in China Grove.
That’s where her husband Franklin was pulled over by a China Grove officer in August 2018 for reportedly running stop signs.
Brandy says he had just left the gun range and had three guns in the car.
The officer confiscated them, but made no arrest.
No formal report was ever given to the Napier’s, just a burglary inventory sheet typically used to document items stolen in robberies.
“She stated that she didn’t have the proper documentation to give him, so that’s why she put it on that and she let him go,” says Brandy.
Brandy showed us receipts for two of the guns listed in her name and Franklin’s along with the serial numbers listed.
The third gun she says was bought at an auction.
She’s made several attempts to retrieve those guns since, making trips to the City of China Grove office.
Every time she says she’s been told the case is pending in the District Attorney’s office and that the guns couldn’t be returned without documentation from their office.
Brandy made a last ditch effort to retrieve the guns last month.
“He said, ‘I don’t have the documentation from the District Attorney’.”
KABB/WOAI made calls a few weeks ago requesting a formal police report from Franklin’s traffic stop in 2018.
KABB/WOAI also stopped by the department Monday to ask for the report and why the guns hadn’t been returned.
We were told we had to go through the DA’s office to retrieve any information about the case.
The DA’s office sent us a letter, stating that media requests had to be processed by the Attorney General’s office.
But the Napier’s lawyer says he’s checked: it doesn’t look like a case exists with Franklin’s name at the DA’s office and at this point, it’s too late to create a case.
“If they haven’t filed a criminal case against the person by now, the statute of limitations has run,” says attorney Patrick Hancock. “A lot more than two years has gone by, so I don’t think the DA can file anything against him and I don’t believe there’s a case sitting in the DA’s office by China Grove on this matter.”
Nearly four years later, no arrest or charges have been filed, a red flag for this attorney.
“If they can’t produce the guns that were taken, the personal property of the individual that was taken and they can’t produce a public police report to even verify that a China Grove officer stopped them and took an individual’s property, then they need to be investigated by the Texas Rangers,” says Hancock.
Brandy says to some it may seem like they just lost a few guns.
But for her family, it’s about more than that.
“God forbid if it gets in the wrong hands or if it’s already gotten in the wrong hands.”