What is the Most Bizarre Thing?

You know that question on the Atlas Quest profile - the same question that pops up on AQ message boards time and time again - the one that asks "What's the most bizarre thing you've ever discovered while letterboxing?"  Well, I always felt a little inadequate since I had never really found anything bizarre.  Sure, I stepped in a dead rotting deer carcass once and I have come across teens (and some not so teen) lovers and I have seen my share of snakes and spiders, but never have I seen anything that I really considered bizarre.  Till yesterday.  I had found my box and was busy stamping in while sitting on a wonderful little bench by a reservoir.  I always thought I was pretty aware of my surroundings when I box alone but this just proved how focused I am once I find that little Tupperware treasure. Less than eight feet away from me, directly in my line of sight on the other side of the trail, I noticed something that didn't look quite right.  It actually took me a few seconds to realize that I was looking at guns!  I have a handgun of my own and I go target shooting but what I know about guns could fill a thimble.  I tried to stay calm in spite of my heart beating ten times faster than it normally does and I returned the box to its hiding spot and walked back to the guns after donning a pair of gloves.  After all, if these were used to commit a crime, I didn't want to leave fingerprints!

 

I picked one of the guns up and the first thing I noticed was the weight.  My handgun is pretty heavy.  This seemed really light.  Then I noticed that there wasn't a removable clip like my gun has.  I quickly decided that these MUST be toys but I wasn't about to try shooting one to find out.  And I didn't like holding it, real or not.  Instead, I took pictures and left.

  

That evening as I told my daughter about this find, she was extremely agitated with me for not calling the police.  She knows that I know nothing about guns and she kept reminding me that I had no way to determine if they were real or not.  She had me feeling pretty guilty when she said "what if they WERE real and Nicholas (my 8 year old grandson) had found them and tried them out."  By this time, I was debating calling the police even though it was almost twelve hours later and I kept thinking that someone must have come to collect them.

Then I called my fiance who is much more knowledgeable about handguns and he looked at the pictures.  I have to admit that at first, he hesitated to say that they were not real.  But after looking at the close up and seeing the "made in Taiwan" stamp on the barrel, he agreed with me that some kids were probably playing and just left them laying there.  

So now, next time someone asks "What was the most bizarre thing you found while letterboxing?" I  have an answer.