6 guns mistakenly delivered to Chester High School
CHESTER, Pa. (CBS) -- FedEx mistakenly delivered a box of guns to Chester High School. Parents want to know how something like this could happen.
When the packages arrived, staff members thought they could have been textbooks because the first day of school is next week, but when they realized it was guns, that's when officers at the Chester Police Department got involved.
It was a bizarre delivery at the loading dock of Chester High School.
On Friday, FedEx dropped off six guns, each in its own separate box. Police say they were .30 caliber M1 rifles, manufactured by Springfield Armory.
Tearia Gibbs' daughter is a student at the school.
"I think it's ridiculous. She's just about to start this year and to hear something like that, I don't know if I want to bring her here," Gibbs said.
The superintendent wrote a letter to staff, saying the packages didn't appear suspicious at first, so they were stored at the school all weekend.
Then FedEx came back Monday afternoon to try to get the boxes back.
"The driver was you can see visibly concerned and very professional, very, apologetic. He definitely made it clear that it was a mistake," Chester Upland School District Superintendent Dr. Craig Parkinson said.
Turns out there was a typo in the address.
The guns were supposed to go to an auto mechanic shop on West 9th Street in Chester Township, not the high school, which is on West 9th Street in the city of Chester.
"Any time any type of firearms on a school ground, school property, they have to be confiscated," Parkinson said.
The school called the police, who opened one of the boxes and took the guns into evidence.
Detectives determined the purchaser had no criminal intent, did have a permit and it was all an honest mistake.
"He was an avid gun collector. I'm just grateful we had positive results that we were able to get the firearms from the high school back here instead of somewhere else on the street in the city of Chester," Chester Police Commissioner Steven Gretsky said.
Police say FedEx admitted the mistake was on their end. CBS3 reached out to the company for comment but we have yet to hear back.