A man claims his gun was recently stolen from a baggage carousel at San Francisco International Airport.
According to NBC Los Angeles, the man, who trains police officers and has a permit for the weapon, was traveling with United Airlines. He said he followed Transportation Security Administration (TSA) guidelines and checked his gun with TSA at Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport.
However, his luggage was shipped to San Francisco on a different flight after his flight was delayed and arrived in the Bay Area much earlier.
"This is a nightmare of anybody who owns a firearm," the unidentified man told NBC Los Angeles. "It was put on a carousel for hours until somebody just stuck around, noticed it not being removed. So they just took it. Literally just walked out with it."
The unloaded gun was stored in a locked case with an airline label indicating that there was a gun inside.
"This could fall on me. On my conscience," he added. "Somebody could get hurt because my gun is out there."
Air travel expert Mike McCarron told NBC Los Angeles that the responsibility falls on the airline because the gun should have been kept in a locked area until the owner claimed it in person.
United said it's working with authorities to resolve the matter but denied any wrongdoing.
"We have filed a police report and are working with local authorities to investigate this customer's missing item. The item was unloaded onto the correct baggage carousel for these types of baggage, and we are using surveillance videos to look into what happened," United said in a statement. "The correct procedure for the baggage was followed."
Earlier this month, TSA announced that screeners discovered a record number of firearms inside of carry-on bags at checkpoints across the country last year, seizing a total of 4,239 firearms for an average of nearly 12 per day.
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