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Pen gun found inside stolen car

An Everett woman is speaking out about something dangerous she found in her car after it was stolen.

Jaime Bryson said when police recovered the car, they didn't do a thorough sweep of it and there was an unusual weapon left inside.

Bryson said the car was stolen on Monday and then recovered the next day in Lake Stevens.

When she went to the tow yard on Thursday, Bryson found what she thought was a pen on the floor of the car.

It wasn't.

"I just found this tool on the bottom of the floor,” said Bryson.

Bryson said the tool she found looked a lot like one she showed KIRO 7 in a picture. She didn't realize it was actually a weapon.

"I (decided to) push the little button in to see what it was, because again I have no idea of what this device is,” said Bryson. “I push the button in, apparently cocking it (and) he looked it up and down."

Her best friend Derrick Grim was checking it out to see what it was.

"(And then shortly after) it was a humongous boom,” said Bryson. “It just left our ears ringing. We went deaf (for a brief period of time). It was a very, very loud boom. It went off and took part of his finger with it."

The pen was really a gun which fired. Grim said he didn't feel anything for about 15 to 20 seconds after it happened.

"I'm still in a lot of shock. I was just looking for someone to call 911,” said Grim. “The bang was really, really loud. We saw people coming from all over the block to see what had gone on."

Grim said he visited a hand surgeon Friday.

"(We’re) probably looking at doing a skin graft,” said Grim.

As Grim tries to make a full recovery, Bryson said she's surprised that when police recovered her car they didn't notice the pen gun inside it.

"There was nothing laying on the ground or in the back seat, especially on that side of the vehicle,” said Bryson. “I don't see why you would return a car with a gun in it."

The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office released this statement:

"We are required by law to conduct an inventory of any large or valuable items in a recovered vehicle, but this would not extend to something like a pen.  Also, it wasn't obvious that the pen was a weapon." 

"I do understand that it's something that doesn't look like a usual weapon,” said Grim. “But if things like this exist, our law enforcement does need to know about it and people need to know about it as well."

Bryson said she's grateful her children did not discover the pen gun first.

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