A police department in Florida that lost an assault rifle given to it through a federal government program will not receive an armored assault vehicle through the same federal government program that gave it the gun.
Florida Today reported Thursday that the Melbourne Police Department can't find a Colt M-16 rifle that had been given to it through a government program that gives surplus military equipment to local law enforcement agencies nationwide. The rifle was one of 65 the program gave to the Melbourne police and was discovered missing in January.
City officials say they will work to improve the department's inventory system to better track weapons and other items.
"I think this is a little bit of a wake-up call that we needed a more stout system of inventory," Mike McNees, the city manager, told the paper. "It's probably an isolated issue, but it's a very serious one. I look forward to being able to answer all the questions and say, definitely, we know what happened."
The paper reported that it is unclear if the gun was assembled at the time it disappeared or whether it is fully or semi-automatic.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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