A child got a huge surprise on Christmas when they found a gun inside a teddy bear gift.
On Christmas morning, an 8-year-of girl foster child opened her present along with other children who received gifts as part of a church gift collection. Natasha Brunson opened a teddy bear box and found a gun inside the package. She started to wave it around and show it off to her friends. Luckily, the gun wasn't able to fire, the New York Post reports.
"This is something you never expect on Christmas," her foster mom, Sheeba Anderson told the Post. "I feel like we narrowly avoided what could have been a terrible disaster. I couldn't calm down all day."
Anderson picked up gifts for her six foster children from St. Anthony's Church in SoHo on Thursday.
Brunson saw the bears and took them out of the box.
"I thought they were really pretty," Brunson told the Post. "So I was squeezing the bears and just starting to play with it."
However she also felt something hard in the box. At first she thought it was a stand for the bear.
"But then I reached in and took out a gun," she said. "I thought it was another toy that fell inside the box."
Although the gun wouldn't fire bullets, it certainly wasn't a toy that should have been in the hands of a child. It appeared to be a start gun, such as those that fire blanks and are used to start a race. The firing pin was missing and there were no bullets inside.
Anderson immediately took the gun from Brunson and started to inspect the other gifts to see if there were any more unwanted surprises. She then called the police.
"Who knows what else was going on with this bear? It could have had drugs or needles or anything else in there," Anderson told the Post.
She was very upset over the incident.
"I treat these kids as if they are my own. I also expect ACS to feel the same way," Anderson told the Post. "This is the last thing I would have expected. Security has to be improved. These are anonymous donations. They could have come from anywhere and anyone."
The presents were given to the church by a nonprofit called Edwin Gould Services for Children and Family which is contracted by the Administration for Children's Services.
ACS contacted the group and is "investigating how and why an inoperable weapon was discovered in a foster home. We are concerned when any potential risk in a foster home comes to our attention, and are working to ensure that all of the children in the home remain safe," according to CBS.
