Sunday, October 28, 2012


Weaponized Book


(Valparaiso, Indiana) A book donated to the public library was found to contain a gun.

"Somebody just opened it up and said, 'Oh my,' " said Assistant Library Director Phyllis Nelson.

The weapon was described by police as a gold, wooden handle, A.S.M. brand, .31-caliber, single shot, black powder gun.

Nelson said she contacted police and told them the book had been donated to the library. Thousands of books are donated each month, she said, and records are not kept, so there is no way of knowing who dropped off the book or when, she said.

Police have the gun as evidence. Exactly for what hasn't been disclosed.

The name of the book is "Outerbridge Reach."

1 comment:

Dean Weingarten said...

The pistol is an A.S.M. .31 caliber muzzleloader. It was made in Italy and available in the U.S. in the middle 1980's.

It can be converted to .22 rimfire with a barrel sleeve. I had a couple of them, but had problems with the mainspring breaking.

Someone did a nice job on hollowing out the book. It is not as easy as it looks.