What does a law enforcement agency do when it needs to dispose of several hundred weapons? Periodically, the Pasco Sheriff's Office Property and Evidence section is faced with this dilemma and the job is no easy task.

Every year, thousands of items of evidence in crimes and other incidents are confiscated by deputies in Pasco. In addition, citizens often turn in property they no longer want to the Sheriff's Office. This evidence and property is securely stored by the PSO Property and Evidence section, until a court order is received to legally dispose of the items.

A recent destruction process included 741 guns, and this was the first large-scale destruction of weapons by the Pasco Sheriff's Office in nearly two years. But guns weren't the only dangerous items destroyed. Other items included lights and transformers from marijuana grow houses, an old large screen TV and a large collection of knives.

Photo left: Hundreds of weapons loaded into vans ready for transport.

Property Evidence Supervisor, Lynda
Hypes makes a final inspection of
weapons prior to departure.

In an evidence destruction process, there are several factors involved that require supervision and security. First of all, transporting the property across several different counties involves an appropriate amount of security. Deputies have to escort and monitor the convoy of vehicles transporting the property from the moment it leaves the secure confines of the PSO Property and Evidence building in Land O' Lakes to the shredding facility in Sarasota.

Prior to the guns being loaded into the transport vans, each weapon has to be checked and rechecked to make sure there is no live ammunition. A box of rifles, several boxes of handguns and even an inert grenade were among the items destroyed in the recent process.

Convoy arrives in Sarasota.

A new company was used by the PSO for its destruction process. American Electronics Recycling in Sarasota cannot only handle the destruction of such a large amount of weapons, but also agreed to do it for free. Joe Blodgett, Plant manager for the recycling company, said his boss saw a news report about law enforcement agencies disposing of weapons in the Gulf of Mexico.

"There are some environmental concerns about disposing of weapons in such a manner," he said. "We then began asking law enforcement agencies to bring the weapons to us and we'll do it for free."

Pasco Sheriff's Office Deputy Dan Olds,
Det. Tim Ball and a Property Evidence employee supervise the destruction
process.

"We feel like our company is doing its part to help the environment by providing a place to dispose of such items, and we also feel like we're doing our part to give to our community by helping law enforcement," Blodgett said. Blodgett's biggest concern is ensuring all the weapons have been cleared of ammunition for the safety of his employees and the multi-million dollar industrial shredding machines.

"I have a 9 millimeter bullet that sits on my desk as a reminder that we find live shells from time to time," he recalled. "We even had a 9 mm clip filled with rounds that we caught before it was about to be shredded."

Pasco Sheriff's Office Property and Evidence Manager, Linda Hypes, said by using the Sarasota company it saved the Pasco Sheriff's Office a tremendous amount of time and money.

Handguns are put onto conveyor belt.

"We used to have to transport these weapons all the way to Jacksonville or Miami," she said. "We had to be there at 8 a.m. and that meant leaving Pasco County around 3 in the morning. Now, we can leave around 9 a.m., and are done by noon. This company is really fantastic, and they even had a couple of people here to help us unload."

Once at the shredding facility, the guns are unloaded from the vans and placed onto a conveyor belt. The belt takes the weapons to a large industrial shredder that turns steel, aluminum and wood into a chewed-up pile of rubble.

These shredders also separate all the components making the most out of the recycling effort. The wood from the gun stocks are put into one pile, while the steel is shredded, eventually melted and shipped back to the steel mills. Aluminum from the grow house lights can also be recycled into a number of items, and even the plastic from TV's and computer monitors are separated into piles where a company from China buys it and turns it into another product.

Hypes also says American Electronic Recycling is extremely efficient. "It used to take us all day to wait for the weapons to be melted down," she said. "This company can do the job in a few hours." Hypes also said American Electronic Recycling will take more items that need to be destroyed and other places