14 DAY TRIAL // Police officers in Maine, US, are now trying to figure out how it was that a gun ended up hidden inside a book. As if this weren't tricky enough, they must also figure out why the book in question was donated to Goodwill.
The trouble is that, although the gun has a serial number inscribed on it, the identity of its former owner is a mystery. This is because, when running the serial number through a national database, authorities got no hits. Otherwise put, this case is shaping out to be quite a difficult puzzle.
How the gun was discovered
The police officers handling this case say that the gun was found inside a copy of Terry Anderson's “Den of Lios,” which details the journalist's experiences while he was held captive by Shiite Hezbollah militants between 1985 and 1991.
Truth be told, it's not exactly accurate to say that the gun was found inside journalist Terry Anderson's book. More likely, the weapon was hidden in a hollow copy of the “Den of Lions.” Simply put, the book served as a protective case for the gun.
It is understood that the gun, said to be a .31-caliber pistol, was discovered by a worker at a local Goodwill store in Maine. The man remembers that, when picking up the book, he felt that something wasn't quite right. Hence, he alerted authorities.
When they arrived at the Goodwill store, police officers opened the book and came face to face with the .31-caliber pistol. They questioned the Goodwill store employee about how the book got there and then decided to confiscate it, NY Daily News informs.
Chances are the gun's owner will never be found
As mentioned, the serial number found on the pistol appears not to be included in the national database. What's more, the Goodwill employee who found the weapon says that the book was delivered to the store in Maine from a central distribution center and didn't come from an individual donor.
What this means is that, despite their best efforts, police officers might fail to identify and locate the pistol's owner and have them explain why it was that they donated their gun to Goodwill.