While unpacking a case of frozen meat, a New Mexico grocery store employee found a loaded gun packed with seven rounds of ammo. KOB's Erica Zucco reports.
A supermarket employee in Roswell, N.M., found an unexpected item in a case of frozen meat this week: a loaded handgun.
The Albertsons worker was unwrapping the meat, which had been shipped from a packing plant in Colorado, when he discovered the firearm, along with seven rounds of ammunition, on Wednesday.
"The big cases of meat come in a box," Sabrina Morales, Roswell Police Department public relations liaison, said. "When he opened it, he saw the firearm. It wasn't packaged inside with the meat, but it was in the same box."
The man brought the Rock Island Armory .38 super semi auto handgun, along with the ammo, into the Roswell Police Department at about 2 p.m. that afternoon, she said.
Where the gun came from is a mystery to police. It was entered into the National Crime Information Center database, but no reports of its being stolen came up.
The supermarket employee wiped it clean before turning it in, making it difficult for police to find any identifying fingerprints.
Adding to officers' challenge: The meat, which was sent to Albertsons from Swift Packing Plant in Greeley, Colo., was packaged more than a year ago.
"The other part that's disturbing is the date on the package was 6.8.2011. I don't know how long meat stays well-frozen, but that was the date of the package he was opening," Morales said.
A call to Swift Packing Plant's corporate office from NBC News was not returned Friday. Roswell police, who did not identify the Albertsons employee, said they have collected all the information they can and have turned the investigation over to Greeley police.
In the meantime, Roswell police are hoping their NCIC database query through the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms may provide some clues, but Roswell Sgt. Jim Preston told New Mexico's KOB.com that the search could take months.
"If it was stolen, we would have thought that by now it would have been entered into the actual database, NCIC, as a stolen firearm," he said. "But we don't have any of that information, and it is something we're looking into."
The gun has made for one of the more memorable cases for the Roswell department.
"You hear of people finding frogs in their salad or weird stuff like that, but never heard of this one," Morales said.
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Probably won't be buying meat from Albertsons. Frozen for a year and a half no idea when it was processed. Not what I am going to pay for.
News Flash... The gun was listed to Eric Holder.
What kind of a dummy would turn in a nice handgun like that? Probably some stupid liberal democrat that believes Obama is a good president......
Always have an excuse to "liberal" and Obama "bash" eh? Thanks to conservatives who HATE ANY regulations on the corporate empire, THIS is the type of crap you get toots and expect LOTS more of it as you see pharmacies moving syringes to their unsuspecting "patients" who need their medications only to find them laced with bacteria that causes meningitis outbreaks. Our food being tainted with bacteria which causes E.Coli, salmonella, more and more harmful cancer causing agents in our air & water because the EPA is not allowed to do their job protecting it because their hands are tied behind their back all the time "as a supposedly JOB KILLING OUT OF CONTROL AGENCY" which is a big croc of s--t to let big business, corporations, industry polluters like the mega billion dollar fossil fuel industry and filthy meat packing industry and factory farms do whatever the heck they want w/o impunity which is working as cheaply as possible, hire the "illegals" you all claim to hate so much instead of hiring American workers who they'ed be forced to even pay that "job killing minimum wage that hurts their bottom line or provide them with "gasp"-HEALTH INSURANCE or bare bones benefits of any kind!!! Treat livestock to any sort of degree of human conditions or cleanliness nefore they're slaughtered because you know, WE HAVE TO EAT THAT eventually and our children in their school lunches YOUR kind do not want to have to "subsidize in anyway, shape or form because paying taxes is abominble to you unless it is for funding the perpetual WAR MACHINE for the mega billion dollar private contractors and of course filthy rich CEOS to keep fattening THEIR wallets.
Keep crabbing about "liberals and Obama" though if it floats your clueless boat because what YOU want is just coming back to bite all of us in the a$$.....BTW: Russia d/n want to import anymore USA beef and pork because it d/n meet their g/l for a hormone we inject in those animals with and their country does not want their citizens eating it.
Of course our deregualtion happy government doesn't care what OUR people eat or is in our water as long as "government is small enough for corporations and fertlized eggs" nobody else are really "people" in the ol" USA anymore so we don't have any rights worth protecting. Take THEM away as fast as possible, except that 2nd one of course. I can still have that at least-for NOW until your kind finds a way to take that away from me because I'm a "liberal". Well you're not getting THAT either-sorry, along with the rest of my RIGHTS. The Constitution does NOT discriminate as much as YOUR kind would LIKE it to. Chow.
Wow lady you must be from a state that just legalized marijuana? ... Be very, very quiet ... the authorities are monitoring you every thought and have you under surveillance. They already have a case against you ... and you very well may have been already measured for a cell to be shared shared with Squeaky Fromme.
OK, unlike the posters on this vine who think they know where this thing came from, I do. OUTER SPACE! This would have been covered up by paranoid, conspiracy folks who could then work overtime explaining how the gun was originally made on Planet Zeneon just outside our Solar System except that a rational person found it first and turned it over to the police. Then there are the hangover simpletons from the last election who did not hear that their creepy (can't knowingly tell a lie because he can't tell the difference) candidate did not win. You know, like coinboy who spends his time asking for handouts on his knees in front of the propaganda bosses.
I'm totally more disturbed by the fact that the meat was packaged a year and a half ago.
I dont know what more scary, the fact that there was a gun with the meat or the fact that the products there selling us are well over a year old. Wonder restaraunts might be doing the same thing...
Why are people talking about Mexico? I heard New Mexico.
Because there are too many people from the US who don't know that New Mexico is US state. LOL.
All the MORE reason to buy meat FRESH from your local butcher rather then the big chain stores which I DON'T and glad I still have one nearby where they're not selling "pink slime". Hopefully they won't get driven out of business too by Walfart and the rest of these big corporate bums who want "profit" before quality and treat employees like chattel.
Suprise. Sorta gives FRESH a new meaning. Shot the hell out of that. No? HAhaha
Meathouse murders? Maybe we should be checking the DNA of the ground beef for species.
I have a good one for all of you. Search Donne Trotter Illinois state senator that was caught with a gun in his bag at Chicago's O'Hare airport. The gun was not loaded but he did have a loaded clip in the same bag. Get this, he voted against concealed carry in Illinois and to top it all off, the gun was not registered but he does have a carry permit because he is a state senator and also works as a security guard! It goes back to "Do as I say not as I do". Illinois government is full of liars and thugs! He is another one of the liberal democrats that is part of the Chicago machine that has totally corrupted this State.
What does THIS have to do with the story? Oh yeah-NOTHING. Just another dem basher trying to start an argument.
What does your comment have to do with mine? Oh yeah-NOTHING! You are just another liberal that won't face facts!
tim, a liberal facing facts? Come on now.
Dodger
I know it is a total oxymoron to mention liberals and facts in the same sentence.
I wonder if the package was meant to be sent to a correctional facility and got diverted unintentionally.
Red
That is actually a very good point. An untraceable gun,old meat and maybe it was not supposed to go to a grocery store.
roswell huh. think maybe an alien hid so the cops wouldn't know he was from outer space or mexico.
Maybe the cow wasn't dead yet and the cow won.
Has all the trappings of Eric Holder, Obama and the Fast and Furious operation.
Maybe the cow committed suicide...................................our maybe bush did it.
Year old meat being sold as fresh, hmm, perhaps that is the bigger story!! It's for sure the meat is thawed then sold. Lies all over the place.
SO WHAT..? WHO CARES..?
Is MSNBC..So Hard up for stories and Ratings..
That it has to publish silly Stories..?
Oh ..wait..i get it.. Focus on "GUNS"...
If You Focus articles on GUNS..EVERY DAY ..For 47 Years ...
You Might get Public Opinion to be willing to BAN Them..?
This would Make OBAMA and OBERSTURMFURER HOLDER's ...Dreams of POWER..
So Much Faster and Easier to Accomplish..
Wow..You Guys are sharp..Such Socialist Patriots..
OK, so the meat was packaged and froze in June 2011, so does that mean that Albertson's is purchasing old meat, thawing it and repackaging it as fresh meat? Even in freezer wrap beef should only be good 6 - 12 months.
EWWWWW!!!
POOR COW..
AFTER Participating in OCCU-PLOP WALL Street..
And Contracting MAD COW DISEASE There..
There was No other way out....sigh....
This incident seems to be another VERY good reason to have ALL Firearms serial numbers entered into a national registry. That can be accessed by both federal and local law enforement But then the NRA and all of those gun nuts wouldn't like it, cause then they just have to obey the law ! (Opppps did I say that ?) Then they would know exactly where that hand gun came from.
Gosh ..Gomer..I didn't know that..
Your One strugling Neuron..should be registered...Don't Forget Our Marxist Martyrs Day Parade 'morrow
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS22458.pdf
Happy now?
Thats a 38 super which is a excellent target pistol , when I worked in a slaughter house some guys prefered to use their own pistols to kill the cows a 38 is a good caliber for that .Some workers use a cattle gun thats air powered , like the one used in "no country for old men".
Was the Cow a Legal Bovine ..or Did he sneak acrooss..?
No one should have sold Him...that firearm
There too Many Cows ..who shoot each other every year...We must put a stop ? to this MAD COW DISEASE
ERIC..? How did you sneak that In..?
OH...! Through there..?
So the Al-qaida leader..
Was Killed by a Cow..packin' heat..
Smuggled up from Mexico's Narco Land..?
From FAST and Frivilous..?
Fast and Furious..?
Fast and FUTILE..?
Fast and................Fatal..?