Grandmother is sent police machine gun in the post by mistake

A grandmother was sent a machine gun intended for a police station through the post after an address mix-up. Catherine Roots had been expecting a horse harness in the post, instead she opened her package to find a Heckler & Koch black submachine gun.

The package was delivered by a courier to Mrs Roots when it should have been sent to firearms officers at the nearby police headquarters. She called the station and two armed officers turned up and took it away.

Police later explained a gun supply company made a mistake with the postcode when they sent it to Dorset Police in Winfrith near Dorchester.



Instead of writing down DT2 8DZ a clerk put Mrs Roots' postcode of DT2 8DT on the package.

Mrs Roots, who is aged in her 50s said: "I was petrified and I didn't touch it – I didn't know if it would go off. I couldn't believe my eyes. Later I found underneath it a letter addressed to the Dorset Police firearms unit with the correct address. If it had got into the wrong hands the consequences wouldn't bear thinking about.

Mrs Roots was later told the weapon was a realistic training gun that fires infra-red beams, not bullets. She said: "I'm told it had been converted to be used with a laser, but someone could probably convert it back."