Officer Steven Carrington discusses a twisted and rusted rifle with the Westfield woman who found the remains of the gun near the edge of Fowler Road yesterday morning. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
WESTFIELD – Unlike a handgun found last month on City View Road, a rifle found on nearby Fowler Street yesterday is not a functional weapon.
A caller yesterday morning reported finding the remains of a gun and Officer Steven Carrington was dispatched to investigate the find.
Carrington reports that the finder, a Westfield woman, showed him the twisted and rusted remains of a .22 caliber rifle.
The woman said that she had seen pieces of the gun’s stock in the roadway and, being a hunter, recognized the debris as part of a gun and investigated the grassy verge.
The gun she found in the windrow on the side of the road, Carrington reports, is a Remington .22 caliber pump action rifle from “the 60’s or older” which has been exposed to the elements for a considerable period.
The barrel is twisted, as if it may have been driven over repeatedly when the field was periodically hayed, and the wooden stock is largely rotted away.
Carrington reports that the serial number is legible but a check of the number did not yield any results.
In July, a .22 caliber revolver was found less than a mile and a half away on City View Road.
That weapon, police report, had not been in the woods very long, as it was in good condition and was, although unloaded, fully functional.
Det. Lt. David Ragazzini subsequently reported that the pistol was found to have been stolen in Berkshire County in February, 2012, but police have not been able to determine where it was until it was discarded nor how it came to be in the city.
