TOLEDO, Ohio — It was a strange find on Wednesday in a west Toledo storm drain. Hundreds of rounds of live ammunition were found, seemingly dumped into a city storm drain.
It was right in front of Chad Scouten's home. He's lived in the neighborhood for the last five years and said he's never experienced anything like this before, especially not while doing something as mundane as mowing his lawn.
"I was doing a loop into the street and glanced down into the sewer grate and something glinted. I took a second look, and I saw a ton of bullets," Scouten said.
It seemed to be hundreds of bullets just piled into the drain. Since Scouten has lived in west Toledo for almost his entire life, he can say with some certainty this discovery is beyond odd.
His neighborhood is at the intersection of Harley and Groveland roads. Although it's next to the interstate, it's a quiet and family-friendly area. He said kids play street hockey and tend to regularly lose their balls down the very drain the bullets were found in. Additionally, Scouten said he mows his lawn at least once a week and doesn't think the ammunition could have been there for too long.
Regardless of whether the pile of bullets had been there for one week or a couple of days, it was too much to throw away himself or ignore. He said there were just too many bullets there not to call the Toledo Police Department.
"They were pretty blown away when they got here and saw how many rounds were actually down there," Scouten said. "Several calibers of handgun rounds I think, a couple of calibers of rifle rounds, all live. When [the TPD officer] first dug his hand down in there, it went up to about his wrist. and he just kept pulling out handful after handful."
Piles of live ammunition found in west Toledo storm drain
While WTOL 11 spoke with Scouten at the storm drain, he joked about actually finding more bullets.
"I found one sitting right there in the leaf litter," he said.
But there is one question Scouten still doesn't have the answer to: Why?
"Gonna be a mystery until somebody figures it out. If they figure it out," he said.
WTOL 11 reached out to TPD and is waiting to hear back. Nevertheless, Scouten said the neighborhood isn't losing any sleep over this and believes there's a reasonable enough answer to this whole situation.