8-Year-Old Finds Loaded Gun at Child Play Center

An 8-year-old in Utah said he found a loaded handgun in a climbing structure at play center on Monday.

Utah news station KSL reported Thursday that the boy's mother, Allison Tiné, said her son discovered the firearm after a party at the Classic Fun Center in Orem on Monday.

Her son, Oscar Govatos, was in a climbing structure at the center when he found the gun.

"When I was halfway through the tunnel the gun was about right in front of me," Govatos told the station.

At first, he thought it was a toy.

"I realized it didn't have an orange tip and it was way too heavy to be a toy and so I turned around to my mom and said, 'I think I found a real live gun,'" he added.

Tiné reportedly told Govatos and his sister to back away from the weapon and tell the center's employees about the discovery. Soon, police arrived on the scene.

"The officer came up and he picked up the gun and he took the magazine out and it was full of bullets and he checked it and yelled down to his partner, who was down below, he said, 'It's loaded and there's one in the chamber,'" Tiné said.

Police in Orem told the news station that the weapon found at the center was loaded and that they are investigating.

In an email to Newsweek regarding Monday's incident, Joe Henderson, the owner of Classic Fun Center, said: "An individual was going through our play structure with his child and his firearm fell out of his holster. Less than 45 seconds later (we confirmed this on security cameras afterward), a mother was passing through with her 8-year-old son and discovered the gun."

Henderson added that the person who lost the gun "continued out of the play structure with his child to the other side of our building, during which time we had the police retrieve the gun."

"The gun owner returned a few minutes later asking if there had been a firearm turned in and we directed him to the police. The police told us it is fairly common that individuals with concealed carry permits drop their guns, luckily this is the only time it has ever happened at our facility. The police said they would wait for the gun owner to reach out to pick up the gun," Henderson said.

Lt. Nick Thomas, a public information officer for the Orem Police Department, told KSL that the owner of the gun has come forward, but that it's too early to know whether charges will be filed in the case.

Govatos' parents told the station that they had taught him gun safety.

"I'm really grateful that we took the time to have those conversations with them and that way it prevented any kind of tragedy from happening," Tiné said.

Newsweek reached out to the Orem Police Department for comment about the incident but did not receive a response before publication on Thursday afternoon.

In a separate incident in Florida in 2019, police launched an investigation after a baby toy box bought at a thrift store contained a weapon. A woman bought what she thought was a baby bouncer as a baby shower gift. But when the recipient opened the box, instead of a bouncer, he found a loaded semi-automatic rifle and live ammunition.

"When you go to the Goodwill for a baby shower gift thinking you got a good deal on a bouncer not even opened and you end up opening a MOSSBERG 715T Semi-Auto Rifle," the woman who bought the bouncer wrote on Facebook at the time.

Update 2/17/22, 1:47 PM ET: This story has been updated with comment from the owner of Classic Fun Center.