A Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputy is on paid leave after apparently leaving his badge and a loaded gun that were found by a child at a South Lake Tahoe rental home.
Josh Segarra, 9, found the gun in a bedroom drawer 10 minutes after arriving at an Airbnb rental near the Heavenly ski resort over the weekend, the boy’s father, Jon Segarra of Hayward, told KTVU-TV. "That was just in a drawer in that room. It wasn't hard to find. It wasn't hidden. It wasn't stashed under a bed or anything. It was in a drawer right there," Segarra told KRON-TV.
At first, the family thought the items were fake. They didn’t touch the gun — a Ruger .380 handgun — but contacted local police. The sheriff's office says the gun was not stolen and it was a department issued gun.
“Imagine if they were playing with it,” said Segarra, a father of four. “I’m very angry about it. My kids found a loaded weapon in their room.”
The gun is the personal weapon of a deputy who apparently left the items behind while staying at the property, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The unidentified deputy is on paid administrative leave while the department investigates.
TurnKey, who manages the property, says this type of situation is unusual and that they take the safety and security of their guests very seriously.
“We are thankful no one was hurt as a result of the incident,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement, according to KTVU-TV.
Airbnb said it also is investigating. The company gave the family a full refund, but the family says neither Airbnb nor law enforcement have contacted them with an update on the investigation.
"You know it's a mistake, but what I'm thinking is how do we leverage this as a learning experience now?" Segarra told KRON. "You know, how do we leverage this to educate more vacation goers and property management places to take more initiative to really clean these spaces especially when families are coming there?"
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
