MAN REUNITED WITH LOST GUN; POLICE IN TWO STATES TRACE 16-YEAR JOURNEY OF STOLEN COLLECTOR'S COLT.

Byline: David Greenberg Staff Writer

When Lyle Larson returned to his Torrance home back in 1983 and found that a rare and prized Colt .45 had been stolen, he reported the theft to police - then gave up hope of ever seeing the semiautomatic handgun again.

But Larson didn't count on the skills of police in California and Nevada, who managed to track him down at his home in Valencia - some 16 years and four moves after the Torrance theft.

``This was like a needle in a haystack,'' said Larson, a consultant for Kavlico, a Moorpark manufacturing company. ``They went out of their way. They could have dropped the ball at any one point.

``But their honesty, integrity and perseverance - the reason why we believed in police officers in the old days - was definitely there.''

Larson bought the Colt, part of a limited-edition ``gold cup'' series, for $600 in 1982. It joined the six other guns he kept as a hobby, an investment and as protection at the automotive and marine shop he owned at the time.

Ironically, Larson's prized possession was stolen when he left his house unlocked. Police suspect that a member of a carpentry crew remodeling the place stole the weapon from a drawer in a bedside nightstand.

When Larson contacted the Colt .45 company, he learned the series had already been discontinued.

Frustrated, he sold his collection, along with his business, and began a series of moves that would eventually land him in Valencia.

``After the Colt was stolen, I just lost interest,'' he said.

According to authorities, the gun was sold at some point to a man living in Fallon, Nev. That man offered to sell the weapon last fall to another Fallon resident, who contacted his friend, Church Hill County sheriff's Sgt. Michael Richards, before any money was exchanged.

Richards ran a computer check on the weapon - still in near pristine condition with the serial number intact - and discovered it had been stolen. The matter was then turned over to the Fallon Police Department, which confiscated the weapon and sent to it the Los Angeles Police Department.

The LAPD used its resources to locate Larson, who picked his weapon up at Parker Center headquarters in November.

Larson isn't the only one amazed at recovering the long-lost weapon.

``It's pretty rare that a 16-year-old gun would be recovered and given back to the victim,'' said LAPD Officer Keith Wong, who worked on the case. ``The weapon itself is (often) damaged or serial numbers are removed or they are taken apart for parts. And most of the time, it's just never, ever recovered.

``Sometimes we have happy endings,'' he said. ``this happened to be one of them.''

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Photo: Lyle Larson of Valencia shows the Colt .45 stolen in 1983.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer