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The gun, a small Derringer-style pistol, was carefully hidden
inside a secret compartment carved from the pages of a hardcover
book delivered to a Goodwill retail store in Ellsworth, Maine,
police said.
"It was just like you see in the spy movies," said Ellsworth
Police Lieutenant Harold Page.
The employee had been sorting through donated books when he came
upon one that "just didn't feel right," according to Goodwill
spokesman Ken Christian.
"Part of our normal procedure is to go through books and shake
them out, to get papers and bookmarks and things out of them,"
he said. "But this was clearly something more."
The store manager called police, who confirmed the .31 caliber
black powder gun was unloaded.
Christian said the book, "Den of Lions," by Associated Press
reporter Terry Anderson, had arrived from a central warehouse
that receives donations from bins and stores throughout the
region, so the store had no way to track its owner.
Police in Ellsworth have not yet found a match for the gun's
serial number in national databases.
"I suspect someone was just cleaning out their house and tossed
this book without knowing it had a gun inside," Page said.
The book, he said, was sealed with a small magnetic latch.
Goodwill, an international non-profit, sells mostly donated
goods at its stores to fund social programs.
Christian said employees occasionally find unexpected donations,
including prosthetic legs, adult videos hidden inside mislabeled
DVD cases and misplaced dentures, but never a gun until now.
"This was a first," Christian said.
(Editing by Scott Malone and James Dalgleish)
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