Two charged in possession of stolen firearms

Published 10:40 am Tuesday, October 22, 2013

After being convicted swindling money from Walmart last year, an Austin woman has now been charged in an alleged firearm theft.

Shannon Marie Huinker, 41, was charged Monday in Mower County Court with felonies for possession of stolen property and fifth-degree drug possession, along with a gross misdemeanor for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Huinker’s son, Jacob Scott Farnsworth, 21, was also charged Monday for felony possession of stolen property.

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According to the court complaint, a resident in Marshall Township on Oct. 8 reported three revolvers — a .357-caliber, .44-caliber and .45-caliber — all as stolen.

On Oct. 18, after executing a search warrant for drugs at Huinker’s home in the 900 block of Fifth St. NW, Austin, authorities reportedly found the stolen firearms, along with ammunition and 0.02 grams of cocaine. They arrested Huinker and Farnsworth and reportedly found another person in the home with 10.65 grams of marijuana. The court complaint added nobody confessed to stealing the guns.

Huinker and Farnsworth are due back in court on Oct. 31.

Huinker was convicted of theft by swindle in September 2012, sentenced to five years’ supervised probation and ordered to pay restitution to Walmart. In that case, Huinker and others went to Walmart several times in 2012, took hundreds of dollars of items from within the store and returned them for cash. A loss prevention employee eventually caught onto the scheme.