So Many Incidents over the years....
When you work in a large department you see/hear of so many of theses incidents, both officer and civilian, sometimes with tragic, others with comic results...
Bottom Line, Check, double check, then check again..
One Incident, at the range. An officer was really proud of a trigger job that was just done on his Mod 29. (late 70's) An officer from another agency was visiting, and asked to "see". The gun was unholstered, rounds dumped in the owners hand, and the weapon was handed over to the other officer. Just as his was pulling it through, WHILE POINTED AT THE BELLY OF ANOTHER OFFICER, the owner set the rounds on the table between them. A Range officer then IMMEDIATELY reached across the table and grabbed the cylinder of the pistol. This of course locked the gun up, not allowing further cylinder rotation, and shouted, COUNT THE ROUNDS DAMMIT !!!.. There were five !... when the pistol was opened, the live round was next up... Lesson learned, almost the real hard way.
Another, is one I would still like to figure out.
The Weapon, 1911 Colt Model 70, Cocked, Locked, one in the chamber.
Weapon was placed in the glove compartment of a 1977 Dodge Coronet (sp?). While running down the freeway, weapon secured in the glove compartment, the Dash EXPLODES.. (his words, and I'm sure he was close to right) took out the instrument cluster along with the good time radio.
Later inspection of the pistol, Safety on. Hammer back, discharged round still in chamber. NO firing pin indentation AT ALL, Primer had partially flowed back into the firing pin hole. The police radio was not in use at time of incident. (25watt Motorola, UHF, no additional amplification) don't think that would have done it. There was a large transmission line that crossed the roadway near where the officer stated that it occurred... I am still scratching my head over this one, and it has been about 30 years. Any Ideas?
I said comic results as well, and That would be hard to imagine, so I will explain.
An old "Day Head" shows up at the range to qualify. He sets up, gets his ammo, goes to the line. Unloads his service ammo, and reloads with the range wadcutters. The line goes hot, Targets turn, he raises and fires. CONFETTI .... Little pieces of green confetti all over... we call a cease fire... his eyes are WIDE.... looks like he is about to cry...
Seems as though he had worked an "extra job" a few weeks before, got paid with 3, $50 dollar bills. He wanted to "Hide them from Momma" so he rolled thm up and stuffed them down the bore of his service pistol. While this was an INTENTIONAL discharge, the results we darn sure UN-INTENTIONAL... but darn sure funny!