OCEANSIDE , N.Y., Dec. 16 (UPI) — A couple in Long Island were horrified to find an assault rifle inside a package they thought contained a child’s toy.
Joel Berman, 60, opened the UPS package in front of his wife and 6-year-old granddaughter expecting a Fisher-Price toy airplane but instead found an assault rifle and other related items, NBC New York reported.
The package contained a Barrett 50-caliber sniper rifle with a “rather sophisticated” scope, stand, ammo clip and copies of an Arizona man’s driver’s license and concealed-weapons permit.
“It was not the little Fisher-Price toy we had expected,” Berman told CBS New York.
He quickly rushed his granddaughter out of the room and called police, who arrived to picked up the weapon.
Berman and his wife had unknowingly driven around with the weapon in the trunk of their car, believing it was a toy they had purchased for a friend’s child, and he was concerned about the potential negative outcomes of such a mistake.
“What if it went to someone who was having ill intentions, and thought this was the greatest opportunity to get a weapon like this?” Berman said.
UPS spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg said such a mix-up is “highly unusual” and said the company would both investigate how the mistake occurred and track down the missing toy.
“UPS does accept shipment of certain firearms in our domestic U.S. system as long as the shipments comply with applicable law and are shipped in accordance with company policies,” she said. “These shipments must be between licensed manufacturers, dealers, distributors, collectors and exclude consumer shipments. UPS puts responsibility with the shippers of regulated goods to follow the requirements for labeling and specific packaging.”
