As if visits to Swedish furniture superstores weren’t already traumatic enough, police report a child has found a gun wedged down the side of a sofa in IKEA and fired it inside the store.
We all know that buying and building flatpack furniture can be a stressful ordeal. There always seems to be a vital piece of equipment missing, the instructions are never reflective of real life, and arguments can swiftly develop, often before you’ve even passed the checkouts. But very rarely is a gun involved in the ordeal.
Shoppers got a frightening surprise when they went shopping on Monday as a child found and shot a gun in the Fishers, Indianapolis, IKEA store.
Indianapolis Star report that the child reportedly found the loaded handgun wedged in among cushions on of one of IKEA’s display sofas – a slightly more dramatic find than loose change or the TV remote.
While the age of the child has not been disclosed, it seems they were not old enough to understand how dangerous the weapon was, as they fired at least one shot inside the store.
The incident happened at around 2pm, police report. Thankfully, no one was harmed.
Police Sgt. Tom Weger explained that the gun had ended up in the sofa when another IKEA customer sat down, and it slipped out of their trousers without the owner realising they had lost it.
Police were called to the scene and took witness statements; while no arrests were made at the time, the information of the case was passed on to the Hamilton County prosecutor’s office to determine whether any criminal charges will be filed.
IKEA issued a statement following the incident, expressing that guns were not allowed in their stores.
It read:
Ikea has a no weapon policy in our locations to prevent exactly these types of situations.
As soon as we were made aware of the situation, our co-workers took the action they were trained to do to ensure the safety of customers.
We are cooperating with police as they investigate this incident
The police had cleared the scene by 3pm, and the store was back open for business as usual.
Accidental gun shootings are scarily not that uncommon – one man even accidentally shot himself in the groin after loading a gun recently.
The man loaded the gun then put it in his waistband before going about his business in a shop.
He bent down to pick something up, and undoubtedly instantly regretted it as the gun fired.
He sprang up, saying ‘F**k! Damn it! Call 911 right now!’
It was revealed the shot had penetrated the man’s groin, which I think is as good a warning about gun safety as any.
The man was taken to hospital and was said to be in a stable condition.
So a lesson to be learnt from these tales – guns in trousers are generally not a good idea.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.