LOWER EAST SIDE — A handgun discovered in the back of a livery cab on the night of Oct. 8 had been reported stolen from a police department in a South Carolina town months earlier, according to police.
The gun seems to have been left in the cab by a male passenger the 23-year-old driver picked up from an apartment building at East Sixth Street near Avenue D and dropped off at another residence in the Tremont neighborhood of The Bronx, according to authorities.
The man appeared to be in his 20s, stood at 6 feet and weighed roughly 200 pounds, according to a police report.
After dropping off the man at his destination on Belmont Avenue near East Tremont Avenue, the driver returned to the Lower East Side and picked up a woman at the corner of Grand Street and FDR Drive around 11:45 p.m., police said.
When the woman, 53, got into the back of the cab, she noticed a black 9mm handgun, at which point the driver immediately drove to the 7th Precinct stationhouse to hand over the firearm, according to a police report.
Officers took note of the gun's serial number and spoke to officers of the Easley Police Department in South Carolina, who confirmed the firearm — an XD-9 model manufactured by Springfield Armory — had been reported stolen from their department on Jan. 25.
The Easley Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not immediately clear how the gun was stolen.
