This may not have been quite the caper Rachel Powers had in mind when she wrote her recent District piece, “How They’ll Blow Up the Port of Long Beach,” but I guess a man smuggling in a 1920s-era machine gun–through the Port–will have to do.

According to the Press-Telegram’s Kris Hanson, the Port authorities caught some Nevada guy trying to sneak a Thompson submachine gun–weapon of choice for spats-wearing 1920s gangsters–into the country from Germany, stashed inside a Porsche.

(Maybe it was inside James Dean’s Porsche, which has been either missing or out-of-sight for 40 years–maybe that was what aroused their suspicion.)

Anyway, the dude from Nevada–who, so far as anyone can tell just wanted it for his own gun collection–is free on $50,000 bail, and facing federal weapons charges.

Which is kind of sad when you think about it.

I mean, this is America. How hard can it be to find a Thompson submachine gun? After all, we made ‘em, less than a hundred years ago. Automobiles from that period turn up in original condition all the time–some with pairs of spats still inside.

And this isn’t a guy from California, with its stringent gun laws. This dude’s from Nevada–where, last time I checked, machine guns were available in broad daylight, at a place in Las Vegas named for a famous Depression-era gangster: Machine Gun Kelly’s Gun Vault.

Plus, as recently as the 1980s, people in California were still finding vintage Thompson submachine guns and restoring them. I can’t believe this guy had to go all the way to Germany to find one. (Also, wouldn’t you bring something like that back through Texas or Florida? I’m just saying.)

Unless maybe this particular Thompson originated from, perhaps, a previously-unexplored area of Al Capone’s vault. That would explain its appeal.

Tags: Al Capone, Al Capone's vault, California, Geraldo Rivera, James Dean, Las Vegas, Long Beach, Machine Gun Kelly's, Nevada, Port of Long Beach, Rachel Powers, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas, Thompson submachine gun