Live Ammo Dumped on City Streets

Cameron Trudeau knew as soon as he saw the handful of rifle bullets his father had found Wednesday outside the Factory Street Plaza where they were working, that he needed to go outside and take a look.

"My dad found 20 bullets and I found six," said Trudeau. He and his dad turned the bullets over to Nashua Police, who also gathered up bullets, along with some other passersby, after more than 100 stray bullets were reported to be scattered on the road in the area of Factory and Water streets on Aug. 21. 

Trudeau said the live bullets actually were found all along Factory leading to Central Street and down Ledge Street, in the direction of the Ledge Street Elementary School.

"There had to be hundreds of them," he said.

Trudeau later posted a photo on his Facebook page – of a handful of his own bullets, not the ones he found – to show people what they looked like. He figured there might be some that didn't get rounded up by neighbors and police, who were at the scene Wednesday for more than an hour looking for the bullets.

Sure enough, Trudeau found another stray bullet Thursday morning as he headed back to work from Clocktower Place, where he lives with his dad [see photo uploaded here].

"I picked up another bullet behind the Nashua Wall Paper Warehouse on Factory Street, as I came out of the West Exit of Clocktower. I have it with me now – I'm going to take it over to the police later," Trudeau said.  

Nashua Police Capt. Bruce Hansen said Thursday that the bullets are considered "found property," and unless claimed, will be destroyed.

"There's no report written yet, but we did find several 7.62 caliber rifle bullets," Hansen said. 

He did not count the bullets, which are now in boxes, but said there were well over 100 of them. 

"The firing pins don't look disturbed, so yes, they're live, but they're junk. They're  in bad shape, all of them rusty. My guess is that somebody was moving and the ammunition fell off their truck or out of their car. This is the kind of thing we dispose of for people all the time who, for one reason or another, have ammunition they don't want," Hansen said. "We will tag these for destruction. Given the condition they're in, they aren't anything anyone would want to put in their gun. At least, I wouldn't," Hansen said.

Trudeau said he believes they were put there on purpose.

"Every responsible gun owner will keep ammo safe. That's why I say it was definitely intentional," Trudeau said. "These aren't just bullets. That's why I put the photo up on Facebook. My dad and I both know how strong this round is; it can go through cinderblock. School starts next week, and we don't want to see some elementary school kid picking one up and walking into school with it."

Although Trudeau said he feels the bullets could actually be exploded with the right force on the ground, Hansen said there is no danger of that. He also disputes the theory that the bullets were intentionally scattered.

"I wouldn't want to say that this wasn't deliberate, because I don't know for certain. But it would be unusual for anybody to do that. People will throw anything in a Dumpster if they can find one. I'd be surprised if someone decided to deliberately scatter them just to get rid of them." Hansen said.