Someone broke into Brendan Stephen Forrester's North Albury home, he reckoned, so he called the cops to report the crime.
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But doing so led to his own arrest, rather than the revelation of any significant clues for the officers who knocked on his door.
They were barely inside Forrester's place when they saw a pistol mounted on the kitchen wall.
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The 40-year-old, Albury Local Court heard on Monday, had no idea the weapon was illegal.
Despite being a plastic replica, coloured black with a felt marker, the imitation pistol's empty, removable magazine was capable, police said, of being loaded with "some form" of pellet ammunition.
Defence lawyer Camille McKay told magistrate Richard Funston that Forrester "didn't understand it was illegal" to have the device.
Forrester pleaded guilty to a single charge of possess an unauthorised firearm or pistol, after police withdraw a second charge of possessing an unregistered firearm or pistol, and was placed on a community corrections order.
Ms McKay said Forrester had called police over an "unrelated matter".
"Essentially, the item is viewed when police are invited into the property."
Police said Forrester, with an extensive criminal history mainly related to domestic violence and illicit drugs, was on bail at the time of his arrest.
Police attended his house on July 10 about midday over the reported burglary.
As soon as they entered the lounge room they could see the pistol mounted on the kitchen wall.
They said the gun, which Forrester claimed to have found in his front yard the day before, "could have been easily mistaken for a real firearm".
