10 Bizarre Places People Hid Firearms

Firearm-related offenses are no laughing matter. Understandably, law enforcement takes firearm offenses seriously, given the danger to human lives. People who are at risk of being caught in the act of these crimes often go to desperate measures to hide the instruments involved with the criminal offense. This means some people have hidden their guns in some unusual and even comical places. Explored in this list are 10 of the strangest places where people have hidden firearms.

Related: Top 10 Bizarre Places People Have Hidden Money

10 Raw Chicken

A record number of firearms passed through various TSA checkpoints throughout the state of Florida in 2022. These acts hit a memorable high in September 2022 when the TSA posted on Instagram that “the “plot chickens” after someone attempted to stuff a fowl with a firearm. The incident happened around 6 am on September 27 at the baggage scanning facility at Fort Lauderdale’s Terminal 4.

The person allegedly committing the act was traveling to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The resulting penalty for such an offense can reach over $13,000 even if the suspect is not arrested. Instead of packing your firearm inside a bird, the TSA requires that firearms be packed in checked luggage and that other firearm-specific regulations be followed. In addition to the risk presented by firearms, raw chicken carries bacteria like salmonella and E. Coli, which can spread on surfaces.

While raw chicken passing through the baggage claim might sound like a one-time occurrence, it is not. In 2021, another raw chicken (this time sans firearm) was spotted by TSA on a luggage carousel in Seattle.^[1]

9 A Gaming Console

In 2013, Sony discontinued production of the Sony PlayStation 2. The following year, however, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey found parts of a firearm hidden inside a PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 2 game as well as other items in the man’s bag. Officers were initially tipped off that something was suspicious with the item when it passed through an X-ray machine. After searching inside, law enforcement found several pieces of a .22 caliber semi-automatic handgun inside a PlayStation 2 in addition to a tripod.

The box of the PlayStation 2 game was labeled Nick Toons: Attack of the Toybots and featured a picture of SpongeBob SquarePants and a group of cartoon characters prepared to fight. Law enforcement found the firearm parts when they removed the bottom of the PlayStation 2. The man in question was on his way to Mexico City at the time he was arrested for weapon charges.^[2]

8 A Donated Sock

A worker at a Chicago thrift store tragically passed away in 2014 after a firearm hidden in a donated sock went off, and the bullet struck the worker in her chest. The woman was sorting through various clothing items at Unique Thrift Store in Chicago when she was mortally wounded. A male co-worker found a sock with a heavy item inside and emptied the contents to discover that it was a .22 caliber handgun, which later went off, killing the female worker.

It remains uncertain how the firearm ended up inside the sock. A large amount of donated clothing each year in the United States is discarded for various reasons, including the potential harm it might cause to later wearers. Approximately 25% of donated clothing is passed on to landfills, while another 40-50% of clothing is exported to the secondhand industry. This means that somewhere between 25–35% of clothing remains in stores, while only 10–20% of donated clothing is sold domestically.^[3]

7 A Hair Weave

In 2014, a woman in Raleigh was arrested after it was discovered she could have snuck a gun into the Wake County Detention Center by placing the weapon in her hair weave. The woman was initially arrested during an early morning raid at a Raleigh nightclub, where she was charged with resisting an officer, carrying a concealed weapon, and possessing a stolen firearm. It remains if the gun that initiated the charges was the firearm later found in the hair weave.

The weapon was revealed during a court hearing to be a small derringer. When the derringer was found, the woman was in the Detention Center’s booking area and had not been processed into the jail. The department later reviewed its policies to determine if they were fully followed and whether any policies should be revised in light of the occurrence. The woman’s bond was later set at $65,000.^[4]

6 An Oven’s Broiler

In 2018, a man in Warren, Ohio, placed his firearm in the broiler of the oven for safekeeping because children were about to come to the man’s residence. The man’s girlfriend later decided to bake but was not aware that the firearm had been placed below the oven. When the man’s girlfriend was cooking, she heard a “bang” and yelled for the man, believing that sound was from a gunshot outside the house. The man then went to the oven, opened the broiler, and attempted to obtain his revolver. The man ultimately received a minor burn.

The heat from the oven led to bullets inside the gun exploding. Either two bullets or fragments from the bullet struck the man in front of each of his shoulders. The man was then taken to a nearby hospital and treated for injuries. The man’s girlfriend was questioned separately and did not know what happened. While the man suffered serious injuries, he was reported to be stable.

Bullet holes were later found in the stove, and the gun appeared to have been through a fire. Empty shell casings were also found in two of the firearm’s six chambers. A detective at the scene commented that it was the first time in his 30 years of police work that he had seen someone shot by an appliance. This is far from the last time a person was seriously wounded from misuse of an appliance. The same year in Mumbai, a 29-year-old man was killed when his co-worker placed a high-pressure air compressor up the man’s bottom.^[5]

5 A Baby Shower Gift

The Baby Einstein series is no stranger to claims of potential harm. Some types are more direct than others, though. One complaint filed in a California court in 2010 alleged that the Baby Einstein creators, as well as the Walt Disney Company, falsely claimed that the series of “educational” products would make them smarter when in reality, the products did not do such a thing.

In another case, a Florida couple received a Baby Einstein gift during a baby shower that appeared to contain an infant bouncer. When the couple opened the box, however, they discovered a semi-automatic .22 caliber Mossberg rifle instead of a jumper. The friends who gifted the item obtained the gift from a Goodwill branch located in Valparaiso, Florida.

At the time of the purchase, the box was taped shut, and the friends believed that the box contained the bouncer in question. The rifle that was discovered was not reported stolen, and no indication exists that the firearm was connected to any criminal activity. After discovering the expectant parents were not felons, law enforcement let the couple keep the firearm. On later review, however, law enforcement requested possession of the weapon.^[6]

4 A DVD Player

A New York man was placed under arrest in 2018 after a firearm was found hidden in a DVD player that he had checked into baggage at JFK International Airport. The 9 mm handgun was covered in aluminum foil and placed inside a DVD player. At the time it was confiscated, the firearm was not loaded. The man was arrested at his gate before boarding a plane to travel to Mexico and later charged with weapons violations.

Various stories over the years have been told of an array of objects hiding in DVD players. In 2021, a couple in Pennsylvania’s Lycoming County was awarded over $20,000 to resolve a lawsuit they filed against a former roommate at Penn State University. The roommate gave the couple a DVD player equipped with a camera that secretly recorded the couple changing and engaging in sexual intercourse.^[7]

3 A Teddy Bear

Teddy bears are one of the most commonly given gifts throughout the world. These bears vary in a wide range of sizes, shapes, and colors. Some stories even exist about bears that have come equipped with hidden firearms.

Police in the Nashville area in 2019 arrested two teenagers and later located two firearms hidden in teddy bears at an apartment. Law enforcement was called to the apartment after reports that the two teenage suspects were wearing masks and carrying firearms around. After arriving at the scene, the two teenagers tried to run away from the scene, but law enforcement caught up with them. The leaseholder of the apartment let the office search inside, where they found two hidden firearms inside a stuffed teddy bear as well as 167 MDMA Pills, 182 Xanax pills, and other drugs packaged for sale.^[8]

2 A Vagina

One medical study suggests that the average depth of a vagina is approximately 3.77 inches (9.6 centimeters). However, variations in the size of a vagina are often not apparent.

In 2012, a woman in Texas was arrested during a late-night law enforcement stop and later discovered to have a loaded handgun hidden in her vagina. The woman and another man were also hiding 2.7 grams of methamphetamines under the vehicle’s driver seat, along with 29.9 grams of methamphetamine in a purse and a set of scales.

While law enforcement was taking the two suspects to jail, the woman revealed that she had a loaded firearm inside her vagina. The officer immediately stopped and searched the woman, at which point it was discovered that she did indeed have a gun inside her body cavity. The weapon included a round chambered and a full magazine of bullets. It’s not known if the gun’s safety was on at the time that it was recovered.

The firearm in question was a 6-shot Smith & Wesson Model 61 semi-automatic pistol. The 61 Escort is 4.69 inches (11.9 centimeters) in length, prompting questions about whether the entirety of the firearm could be placed inside the woman’s orifice. The woman was ultimately charged with manufacturing and delivery of a controlled substance in a drug-free environment as well as two counts of possessing a dangerous drug and one count of unlawfully carrying a weapon.^[9]

1 Underwear

A man in Michigan in 2019 was arrested on a firearm-related charge after hiding a loaded revolver inside his underwear while being booked into Cook County Jail. Law enforcement later discovered the .22 caliber revolver with live rounds when the man entered one of the jail’s body scanners. While the man was being scanned, law enforcement found a crotch area of the body scan that suggested a handgun’s handle.

The man was then strip-searched, but nothing was discovered. An investigation was then performed by the Sheriff’s office about how the man managed to get and hide a weapon, particularly considering that the man had been apprehended two days previously and, during that time, had attended a bond hearing on other matters. The man was later charged with possession of contraband in a penal institution.

While it’s perplexing how a man could fit a firearm in his underwear for two days undetected, a gun is likely not the strangest thing that was hidden in a man’s underwear. Instead, the weirdest item hidden in a man’s underwear in recorded history likely occurred in 2017 when a man hid a digital scale in his underwear during a traffic stop in Salisbury, Maryland.^[10]

+ BONUS: Anal Cavity

In 2015, a man in New Jersey was discovered hiding a firearm inside his anal cavity. New Jersey law enforcement arrested the man on a contempt of court warrant but suspected the man was likely hiding something else when the man requested to use the restroom. He changed his mind later, stating that he did not have to go to the bathroom when the police mentioned searching him and inspecting the bathroom both before and after he went.

Law enforcement later searched the man and found an automatic handgun shoved between the man’s buttocks and up his anus. The firearm was fully loaded. The weapon was later discovered to have been stolen in Alabama. The man ended up facing additional charges, including unlawful possession of a weapon and receiving stolen property, as well as a charge of contempt.

Despite the temptation in some situations to hide something in an anal cavity, concealing items in such a way presents various dangers, including intestinal obstruction, acute intoxication if drugs are involved, and in the case of this man, the accidental discharge of the weapon.^[11]