The home of an 88-year-old retired NYPD officer living in Ireland was raided last month over an old, decommissioned revolver in his home.
Locals say the raid on Jude McGovern's home was the largest in recent memory in the tiny village of Swanlinbar, County Cavan, population 200, involving as many as 10 armed officers in six vehicles.
“I said to them, I wish it was f–king loaded because I would have blown every f–king one of you away,” McGovern told The New York Post. The firing pin was removed from the gun a long time ago, and it is no longer functional.
“Can you imagine?” the outraged octogenarian said. “About 10 of them forced in my front door around 9:30 in the morning when I was out of the house, and then I come back and find four of them going through my furniture looking for my gun."
The April 9 seizure came after a local judge signed a warrant citing “unlawful possession of a firearm in suspicious circumstances” in the Main Street apartment where McGovern lives with his two Jack Russell terriers.
McGovern grew up in Swanlinbar and immigrated to the US in 1957, joining the U.S. Army.
In 1968, McGovern joined the NYPD, and later switched to the Department of Corrections.