Albuquerque grocer finds gun in meat shipment

New Mexico cops said a grocery worker found this gun while unwrapping frozen ribs. / KRQE

A worker at a New Mexico grocery store was shocked to learn that he was unpacking way more than meat while unloading a shipment of ribs.

CBS Albuquerque affiliate KRQE-TV reports that a worker at a Albertsons in Roswell, N.M., opened a case of frozen ribs in the meat section Wednesday and found a loaded handgun.

Law enforcement agencies in New Mexico and Colorado are still trying to find out where the weapon, a semi-automatic Rock Island Armory .38 Super with seven rounds of ammo, came from.

"I have personally never heard of this in 13 years," said Sgt. Jim Preston of the Roswell Police Department.

KRQE-TV reports that the worker told his supervisor about the gun and then handed it over to police.

The meat package was dated June 8, 2011 and came from the Swift Packing Plant in Greeley, Colo. Greeley police told KRQE-TV their gang unit is looking into whether or not the gun was involved in any crime.

Police say the gun was not reported stolen.

The Albertsons supervisor told police the box that held the pistol was indented and that no one in the store was in danger.

How it got there remains very much a mystery. Preston told KRQE-TV guns are rarely seen in Roswell.

"We could speculate on a lot of things," he said. "It could have been someone just dropped it there, or it could have been something that someone put it there trying to hid it for 100 different reasons."

[caljack430]

June... 2011!?!? I now see why people go vegetarian. That's gross that the meat many of us are consuming doesn't even get unpacked for a year and a half... blegh!