Please tell your "friend" that he should turn in his CTA-500, or unit property.. And that even if it was a covered loss and he paid for it by way of a Financial Liability Investigation of Property Loss (FLIPL), the property, if recovered still belongs to the US Army.. Feel free to speak to your unit JAG.
If by chance, this vest is not in the possession of a US Military member.., as that piece of property was only sold to the US Army .... it would likely be stolen property, as it can not be given away.
AR 735-5, paragraph 14-14, provides detailed guidance on the steps you must follow to
re-establish accountability. These steps are summarized as follows:
SNIP
c. When property is recovered after a document or voucher number has been assigned to the
investigation, the initiator, the financial liability officer, appointing authority, or the approving
authority, as appropriate, will direct the accountable officer in writing to re-establish
accountability for the recovered property
Not trying to be a bad guy here, just do not want to see a forum member visited by CID, nor have the Forum owner have to deal with warrants or requests for information on members.
I just don't want someone to get hassled, for what appears to be, and often is, not legit.