An aware driver found the gun on New Paltz’s Huguenot Street.

We've all been there at one time or another, your driving down a road in the Hudson Valley and you see something on the side of the road and your not quite sure what it is. Most of us just keep driving along without stopping, thank goodness that's not what one mother from Ulster did the other day while driving in New Paltz.

According to Hudson Valley One, Casey-Quinn Kooistra, was driving down Huguenot Street in New Paltz a few days ago, on her way to work when she saw something on the side of the street. She said, "I thought to myself, No, that’s not what you think it is, but then decided I needed to make sure". So she stopped her car, backed up and got out of her car and saw what she thought was a handgun in the middle of the street.

Kooistra did the safe thing, and called the New Paltz Police Department right away and when she got off the phone, a jogger went running past and also noticed the item in the street and said to her, "That’s a 38-caliber gun and it’s fully loaded." According to Kooistra the jogger wanted to move the gun from the middle of the road so that a car didn’t hit it and have it accidentally go off. She also said that, “A woman and her two kids were walking right towards us, and I cautioned her that there was a loaded gun and she thanked me and took them the other direction."

New Paltz Police Chief Robert Lucchesi was aware of the incident, and told HV1 that it was indeed a loaded firearm and said that the police "have made contact with the owner." He also stressed that the gun was "not used in a crime or attached to any sort of foul play" but was a case of someone misplacing, or losing their firearm. He was also asked if the person who misplaced the gun would still be allowed to keep it and their permit to have a gun, he said, "That will be up to the Ulster County Pistol Permit Bureau."

Chief Lucchesi did say that if any resident ever comes across any sort of firearm they should do exactly what Kooistra did, call the police.

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