Federal agents are trying to figure out why an Oklahoma gun store owner threw almost 250 guns in a dumpster, and why a man was allegedly allowed to keep two of them as a memento.
According to court filings first reported by CourtWatch, on January 19, 2023, an Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, sanitation worker stumbled upon a dumpster with 236 rifles and 12 shotguns in it. The shocking finding led him to call authorities, who found many of the guns were functional, the filings stated.
Investigators wrote that in late 2022, the owner of the store, International Firearm Corporation, Anthony Mussatto, had asked agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms how to destroy the weapons, citing a manufacturer's defect.
Mussatto was told in the fall by the ATF to slice the faulty guns in three different areas, according to a January 26 search warrant.
Several months later, on same day the agency was contacted by the sanitation worker, ATF agents visited the dumpster and found functional guns, "despite being partially cut," according to the warrant.
The agents then encountered two men near the store who told them that they had seen the dumpster loaded with guns on separate occasions, months before the January incident.
Mike Keenum, one of the men near the store, told agents that a teen employee had been cutting the weapons outside of the store multiple days a week, when he approached the employee and said he was interested in owning the guns.
"Mr. Keenum told the man that he did not intend to shoot the guns, but rather wanted to hang the firearms on his wall," an ATF agent said in the warrant. "The male employee permitted Mr. Keenum to take two uncut firearms and gave Mr. Keenum two magazines, one for each gun.
Per the warrant, authorities are seeking to search Mussatto's homes and other businesses to see whether the two guns given away were documented. Agents are also looking into whether Mussatto followed the gun disposal laws required for federal firearm licensees, and whether he lied to investigators in 2022.
Mussatto did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.
The man who got the free dumpster guns, under the table, said that they were in working condition.
"Mr. Keenum told SA Moore it was clear between him and the employee that the firearms he was taking had not yet been cut by the man," agents said in the filing.
Now, agents are looking into whether Mussatto improperly disposed of the weapons and whether his staff provided a man two shotguns for free, potentially allowing him to skip a background check, an ATF agent said in a filing.
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