God alone knows.
Police were at his house for some reason and "confiscated" it, just refused to give it back until it had been completely destroyed.
He could have sued and got a Court Order releasing his property, but he didn't know anything about courtrooms except that they were bad places to go. As far as he knew, the cops WERE the Law. Some of them (thank God a minority) certainly seem to ACT like they are IN CONTROL. It's an old problem with people in Authority; it seems to go to some of their heads. I had a Vancouver cop tell me, 45 years ago, "Listen, Punk: I make the law around here!" I was a member of a club and had gone to the police station to get a Form 42 (the old range permit) so I could go to the range. It took 6 months to get, eventually.
If you can keep people ignorant of what the law really IS, and throw your weight around enough, you can get away with just about anything, just by buffaloing people into submission.
Showing "deference to Authority" is said to be one of the defining characteristics of Canadians. Get the wrong people in the offices of Authority, and it can be a very short step from "deference TO Authority" to "fear OF Authority". The one implies a quasi-egalistic state of affairs, the other is definitely a master-servant relationship.
Sorry, but I don't want to be anyone's servant, not when I have to pay their exorbitant salary, too!
Sometimes, I wish Canadians were a lot more LIKE Americans. At least Americans stand up for their rights, even if they are wrong some of the time.
End of rant.