Well, you told him you traded it back to the shop and the shop sold it again. The most recent legit owner that bought it from the shop might want it back.
In LE for a lot of years. Amazing how many folks do not record the serial #'s to their guns and keep them in a safe place "just in case". I've taken legit stolen gun reports and a lot of owners don;t even remember the brand or model gun. Ususally i'll get something like " it was a black gun with black grips and it was a 38".
Thats it---nothing else is known by the owner. Then i'll ask where and when did you buy it? They will say xyz gun shop and then have trouble remembering when they bought it. 1994? or was it 1992?(in fairness, a lot of these folks are not gun enthusists, just a house gun is all they wanted)
So i go to that xyz gun shop (who does not have computerized record keeping) and ask them to check their bound book from 1992 thru 1994 for all 38's that they have entered and see if one of them was sold to my complainant. If i get lucky, they will find it. Many times they will gladly expand the search an additional year or two. They will usually find it--about a year off from when they thought they had bought it. From there we can then identify the gun further and obtain the make, model, caliber, and serial#. Then a entry can be made into the national database to report the gun as stolen.
Lots of folks depend or think that a gunshop will keep these records on hand for whenever they need it. But sometimes a shop owner sells out to someone else. The orginal owner of the shop then sends his books in to ATF as the new shop owner takes over and starts his own set of books. End result for me then is a dead-end.
From what a FFL told me, these "retired books" go into some atf wharehouse and may set there for years upon years.
Best thing that folks can do is write down their serial#'s along with make, model, and description and put it in the safety deposit box or some other secure place "just in case".