Man acquitted for forgetting machine gun in trunk of Porsche

Going into court, Peter Scharf's defense may have seemed a little unconventional: I forgot the machine gun was in the trunk of my Porsche.

A federal jury on Thursday, however, agreed with Scharf.

Jurors took two hours to acquit the 43-year-old Nevada man on two federal charges of automatic weapons transportation and smuggling.

Scharf was arrested by federal agents in November after U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents discovered a dismantled Thompson submachine gun in the trunk of a Porsche 911 Turbo that Scharf was shipping into the United States through the Port of Long Beach.

Highly prized and priced by collectors, the Thompson is capable of firing up to 1,200 .45 caliber rounds per minute.

Following the arrest, authorities said Scharf might have been trying to obtain the weapon for a personal firearms collection.

During the trial, Scharf explained that he was moving back to the United States after an extended stay in Austria. He testified that he took the gun to a planned meeting with a gun buyer in Germany the day before he was to drop the Porsche off at the Port of Bremerhaven, but the meeting with the buyer fell through.

The next day, Scharf said he overslept and in his rush to get the car to the port, forgot the machine gun was dismantled into three sections, wrapped up in blue cloth, and stored in the spare tire compartment of the Porsche.

Both Scharf and his mother from Austria testified during the three-day trial.

Scharf, through his attorney, said he was very happy with the jury's decision.

The government's lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Levin, had no comment after Thursday's verdicts. 

Source: American Shipper