Stun Gun on the Run: LA Sheriff's Deputies Lose Shotgun From Trunk

Two sheriff's deputies lost a yellow bean bag shotgun from the trunk of their car Saturday morning, authorities said.

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department's gun was not recovered, despite an extensive search involving the a sheriff's department helicopter and search-and-rescue team. The department issued a public safety alert over the firearm.

Deputies had the weapon, used to subdue people by hitting them with bean bag rounds but able to be loaded with lethal shotgun shells, in a black canvas bag when they left the Lost Hills Sheriff's station in Agoura Hills at about 7:30 a.m., according to a department statement.

They put the bag in a patrol car's trunk and left the station to handle a child abuse call at a hospital in Hollywood, deputies said.

Someone on the street in Hollywood flagged the cruiser down to tell them the trunk was open, deputies said. The shotgun was the only item missing.

There are four bean bag shells in the shotgun, deputies said, which would would likely have fallen out of the trunk along the route the car took, given in the press release:

"The deputies drove eastbound from the sheriff's station at 27050 Agoura Road, turned northbound onto Las Virgenes Road and entered the eastbound 101 freeway in Calabasas. They continued eastbound on the 101 freeway and entered the southbound 405 freeway. They exited Skirball Center Drive on the 405 freeway and re-entered the northbound 405 freeway. From the northbound 405 freeway, they drove onto the southbound 101 freeway until at about 8:30 a.m. when they exited at Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood."

The department is "very concerned about finding this missing shotgun" and investigating why the gun might have been able to fall out of the trunk, according to the statement.

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