Gun found in teddy bear

Teenagers have long used their childhood stuffed animals to hide things they don't want their parents to see. It now appears that one of those illicit teddy bears got donated to a church for Christmas. But the bear was holding something much worse than a fake ID.

Harlem woman Sheeba Anderson went to St. Anthonys Church in Soho last week to pick up two bags of already-wrapped presents to give to her foster kids. On Christmas morning, Anderson's 8-year-old foster child Natasha opened her gift and was happy to discover a mama and papa teddy bear. But there was also an unloaded gun hiding inside the set, the New York Post reported. “I thought they were really pretty,” Natasha told the Post. “So I was squeezing the bears and just starting to play with it…But then I reached in and took out a gun.” 

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Her foster mother was horrified. “She had a teddy bear in there and then she was waving around this gun and I was just shocked,” Anderson told CBS. Luckily, the gun wasn't loaded and appeared to be one of the starter pistols used to start a foot race.

A spokesman for the nonprofit organizing the donation program told CBS that it is investigating "how and why an inoperable weapon was discovered in a foster home. We are concerned when any potential risk in a foster home comes to our attention, and are working to ensure that all of the children in the home remain safe."