"Sheriff protests ruling" from the December 28, 1972 Door County Advocate
Sheriff protests ruling
A December, 1970, raid by federal officers and members of the Door county sheriff's department on an arsenal owned by Herman (Bud) Unger of Chicago in the town of Baileys Harbor has been ruled illegal by Federal Judge Myron L. Gordon. The decision was handed down in Milwaukee federal court Monday.
The raid resulted in the seizure of 10 mortars, two bazookas, eight machine guns, three anti-tank guns, 92 hand grenades (without powder), 170 pounds of explosive powder, 18 rounds of .37 millimeter armor piercing shells, thousands of rounds of other ammunition and numerous other weapons.
Unger, 43, a Chicago insurance salesman and gun dealer, has a summer home in the North Bay area. He has a license to sell guns and the weapons were registered, according to Asst. U. S. Atty. Steven C. Underwood.
Underwood said the search and seizure had been made without a warrant under federal laws that allow inspections of gun dealerships and storage areas without a warrant. Unger testified the guns were not part of his business but belonged to his private collection.
Judge Gordon said that because the storage facility was more than 200 miles from Chicago, it was unreasonable to regard it as part of his business.
Sheriff Hollis Bridenhagen, whose deputies assisted federal agents in the seizure, disagrees with the judge.
"I believe this arms and munitions cache is very much a part of his business," the sheriff said Wednesday. "I believe he (Unger) comes up here to test fire his weapons before bringing them back to the city to sell."
The sheriff said he has had numerous complaints from North Bay residents protesting the shooting of live ammunition. The latest complaint was in October of this year.
Machine guns have been fired in several gravel pits and in one instance, the sheriff says the manager of Aqualand (a wildlife center in the town of Liberty Grove) told him machine gun bullets had landed in the fish pond.
"Not only are machine guns fired," continued the sheriff, "Unger has a cannon he hauls every once in a while to the Mud Lake area."
The cannon, to the sheriff's knowledge, is still on Unger's property.
The sheriff said besides being worried about ammunition (bullets have been known to ricochet over the top of gravel pits), fire is another potential hazard. "The stuff was stored in a wooden building and if a fire had gone through the area there would have been one terrific explosion."
"Many people could have been hurt," he concluded.
In court, Atty. Underwood said most of the ammunition and explosives were destroyed after the seizure and Unger may now seek compensation.
The raid was carried out by agents from the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms Division of the U. S. Treasury Department shortly before Christmas in 1970. According to Sheriff Bridenhagen, agents spent three long days in cars before the raid could be carried out.
"We practically lived on bologna sandwiches," he recalled.
The government had filed suit to have the arsenal condemned after contending that Unger had not kept proper business records for the weapons.
In 1971, Unger was convicted in federal court in Chicago of possession of an unregistered gun, according to Atty. Underwood.
[author not stated]
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive