Cops take Luger from 16-year-old suspect, internet goes wild

Crawford was arrested and processed through Central Booking after police recovered what looks to be a late-pattern Luger and assorted herbs and spices. Also, is there a .40 mixed in there with the 9mm? That’s the real crime here (Photo: BPD)

Police in Baltimore encountered a teenage suspect this week with drugs and a handgun worthy of a supervillain.

Robert Crawford, 16, was taken into custody by officers on patrol around the 3400 block of Edmondson Avenue around 3 p.m. Sunday in an arrest that recovered a loaded handgun and drugs.

The gun carries the distinctive profile of Swiss inventor Georg Johann Luger’s classic toggle-action semi-auto pistol that carries his name. The venerated handgun, first adopted by the Swiss Army but famously used by Germany in back-to-back World Wars, has gone on to be used in literally hundreds of movies, TV shows and video games, earning it a cult status and a fair bit of aesthetic imitators (Japanese Nambu, Ruger Mk I, etc) although its toggle-action was a technological dead-end.

This, naturally, set the stage for commentary on Crawford’s choice of sidearm once BPD posted the above image to social media on Wednesday, quicking garnering over 1,100 comments. Some of the better for your amusement:

  • Robert Crawford, The last remaining German spy in America. Good job Baltimore PD.
  • Was he selling drugs in World War 2?
  • I guarantee a BANG sign comes out when you pull the trigger.
  • What in the red dead redemption is going on here?
  • Were you able to recover the time machine as well?
  • This the Nino Brown starter kit?
  • Looks like obergrĂĽppenfuhrer Crawford’s reign of terror has ended.
  • All cause the carriage’s taillight was out…
  • What was he selling, Pervitin?
  • Did they also find a Panzer IV parked in his garage?!?
  • This the gun the predator gave Danny Glover at the end of Predator 2.
  • The police didn’t catch him it was the private investigators for the Smithsonian tracking that gun.
  • Leave Hitler’s weed man alone.
  • Who the hell did the cops search? John Wilkes Booth?
  • Christ, who was he selling drugs too? Marty McFly?
  • Run the serial number on that gun he stole it from Abe Lincoln.
  • The officers also recovered a rocket backpack, a vial with supersoldier serum and a and the disembodied brain of Adolf Hitler in a jar.
  • Did you guys manage to impound his horse too?
  • WHY DID THE COPS CATCH HIM? Because he did NAZI them coming.
  • Who sold him that illegal handgun, Zee Germans?

The City’s inmate locator has Crawford’s birthdate as Christmas 2001 and he is listed as still in custody as of Friday morning, charged as an adult with weapon and drug offenses.

As for his Luger, many posters urged the department that the gun is likely stolen from a collector eager to get it back, while others offered to purchase the vintage firearm.

Oddly enough, Crawford’s gun was not the first Luger found by BPD. They posted a picture of a similar weapon in 2015, though without much background other than, “#NoMoreViolence #BPDED patrol was able to get this gun off of Baltimore’s Streets. Suspect arrested.”

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