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To Keep and Arm Bears
Airport security workers found a loaded handgun stuffed inside a brown teddy bear that a 10-year-old boy was carrying on a trip home after his familyâs Florida vacation, authorities said Thursday. The FBI is investigating how the gun got inside the teddy bear. Donât hold your breath. A Transportation Security Administration worker noticed the outline of a gun when the bear passed through an X-ray machine at Orlando International Airport on Saturday. Iâm impressed he was awake enough to see it. The TSA found a loaded .22-caliber gun after the bear was opened. The boyâs family told investigators that the bear was a gift from a girl at the hotel where they stayed during their Orlando vacation. `She appeared at their hotel room door and offered them the bear,â said Robert Johnson, a TSA spokesman in Washington. `The mother said it was OK and so the boy took it.â No strange girls bearing gifts have ever showed up at my hotel room door. Iâd remember. The Miami Herald reported that the gun had been concealed by cutting a half-inch hole at the bottom of the bear, and that the gun had been reported stolen in 1996 in California. Bet that gun has been hidden in the bear for years, somebody forgot about it. Maybe someone in the supposed strange girls family. Too bad you didnât get her name. Johnson said the incident ``underscores the need to screen everyone and everything no matter how innocent the people or their belongings may appear.ââ The TSA will milk this for all itâs worth. The boyâs parents, Robert and Angela Barry of Grove City, Ohio, were questioned by FBI agents and released. From her home in suburban Columbus, Angela Barry said she didnât want to talk about what happened until the FBI investigation was finished. ``I want every way possible for them to find out who did this,ââ she said. The FBI did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. They want to find Jimmy Hoffa to question him about the anthrax case first. Posted by: Steve 2003-07-17 |
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