A grandmother was left petrified when she was sent a police machine gun in the post by mistake.

The package was delivered by a courier to Catherine Roots when it should have been sent to firearms officers at the nearby police HQ. Mrs Roots had been expecting a horse harness in the post so opened the package thinking it was that. Instead, she found the Heckler & Koch black sub-machine gun staring back at her. She called the police and two armed officers turned up and took it away.

Red-faced officers later explained a gun supply company made a one-digit mistake with the postcode when they sent it to Dorset Police HQ in Winfrith near Dorchester. Mrs Roots, who is her 50s and runs a small-holding at Winfrith, said: ‘I was absolutely and totally shocked, and petrified. ‘I get a lot of packages and I signed for it thinking it was a harness for one of my horses. ‘I just plonked it down and didn’t think about it, but when I later opened it up I was terrified.

‘You don’t expect something like that to to arrive. I was petrified and I didn’t touch it – I didn’t know if it would go off. ‘I think something as a big and as serious as a sub machine gun shouldn’t be sent by a domestic courier that just travels around the roads and delivers to ordinary private addresses.’

Gives the term “going postal” a whole new meaning.




  1. Raff says:

    Man… Granny gets a sub machine gun in the mail.. different granny finds 97k in a bathroom… How come I never get so lucky?

  2. I says:

    There is obviously an underground Granny gang organization that is planning to take over the world. Run and tell Adam Curry!!!

  3. Mister Mustard says:

    Nice. It looks like an H&K G36 5.56mm assault rifle! 750 rounds per minute and a Zeiss 1.5X sight, with a side-folding stock and detachable bipod. I wish somebody would send one of those to ME by mistake.

  4. lock_down says:

    Why was it that I knew instantly that this would be from the Mail?

    Maybe you’ll get more lucky as you get older Raff.

    Maybe getting old has some advantages after all. Though if I get sent a gun, I want it to be a double barrel sawn-off shotgun; man could have serious fun blowing out people’s kneecaps with that…

  5. steelcobra says:

    “I was petrified and I didn’t touch it – I didn’t know if it would go off.”

    This is a perfect example of a nanny-state, uneducated individual.

    And the picture is of a G36C with the full-size non-export model’s carrying handle/sights istead of the low-profile picatinny rail.

  6. wbskeet37 says:

    So if that was sent in the “mail” in the US she should not have opened it up because it was not addressed to her. And after opening it up she should not have forwarded it herself (the post office should). Both federal offenses I believe.

    However I am not sure of the laws that govern the “mail” in the UK.

    Any Englishmen in the group?

  7. chuck says:

    Did they have to pry it from her cold, dead hands?

  8. Mister Mustard says:

    #5 – Steelcobra

    Huh. Right you are. I didn’t notice the 228mm barrel. And the handle/ sight in place of the pickatinny rail tricked me up. Granny musta gotten a customized model.

  9. BigBoyBC says:

    I bet ya’ Grandma ain’t goin’ to be runover by that raindeer this christmas. Santa better watch himself too, or she’ll bust a cap in his jolly fat backside…

  10. clone4crw says:

    Make a mistake and send one to me next!!!

  11. Ron Larson says:

    What is the electrical component on that gun? It almost sort of looks like an RFID reader.

  12. Hugh Ripper says:

    #11 Its so you can hook it to your PC and synch it to iTunes.

  13. Stu Mulne says:

    Given the gun-stupidity in the UK, I’m surprised she wasn’t hauled off to jail for even knowing that it was a gun….

    Nanny must have been asleep….

    I suppose you have to not be a hoplophobe, but shooting those things is on my “most fun you can have with your clothes on” list…. (Potentially expensive, though….)

    Regards

  14. Mr Diesel says:

    #3 MM –

    I don’t ever want you to say I’M a gun nut….

    Be better if it were 7.62. I don’t like little guns.

  15. Mister Mustard says:

    #14 – Mr Deisel

    >>Be better if it were 7.62. I don’t like little guns.

    Ask Santa for an H&K G3 then.

    Although 7.62 X 51mm is more commmon in a sniper rifle. You’re not looking for a sniper rifle, are you? I understand that sniper rifles are sometimes used to shoot abortion doctors!

  16. Mr Diesel says:

    #15 MM –

    I already have an AR-10.

    Reach out and touch someone

  17. Elwood says:

    I’m not a gun expert, but, as #11 asked, what’s with the cables?

    anyways, it’d be fun to try out!


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