Barrie police have taken possession of live ammunition discovered at a local thrift store on Thursday.
Early this morning, police say officers responded to a store that sells reusable items in the southwest part of the city after an employee discovered suspected ammunition which was part of a recent donation.
Police identified the items as a shotgun shell, suspected BB-gun ammunition and shell casings.
Police said the store was unable to determine who may have dropped the items off, but “acted in a manner that kept their staff safe” until officers arrived and took possession of the suspected ammunition.
“From time to time, police are called upon when citizens wish to dispose of unwanted firearms, weapons and ammunition,” police stated in a release.
“When contacted, police will clearly identify the proper process by which these items can properly and safely be turned in for destruction, and will work with the owner to ensure that the process identified is followed,” the release added.
Police said they recognize incidents like this are rare, and encourage the public to reach out and always seek the advice of local police when it comes to the safe surrender of weapons, firearms and ammunition.
“The (store staff) did everything right … they kept the area safe and secure,” police communications coordinator Peter Leon told BarrieToday, an affiliate of BradfordToday and InnisfilToday.
“This is a good opportunity to educate the public that, if they call, we’ll tell them what to do, and we can generate a call for service, and (police) can either attend and get it, or they can come to the headquarters (on Fairview Road) and surrender items here,” he added.
Leon stressed that if anyone plans to surrender ammunition or firearms at police headquarters to not take the items out of their vehicle, but to instead call ahead and police will come out to the vehicle. This is for safety reasons.
“You can imagine if somebody coming in with a long gun into a police facility the type of response that they may receive, so it is important to call ahead to determine the best course of action,” he said.
“If a family is clearing out a residence and find that Grampa had an old shotgun or something left over from the war and they're not sure what it may be, it’s better to err on the side of caution,” Leon added.
Although these instances happen infrequently, he said the most common items surrendered to police are expired marine flares.
“Being a police facility, we have the ability to take that ammunition and it can be put in with ours when we are getting rid of older ammunition and properly disposed of,” Leon said.
