'Pretty suspicious': New Zealand man finds guns, ammo while metal detecting

11:50am May 23, 2024

A New Zealand man was surprised to find two guns, including an AK-47, on his first day of metal detecting.

Dan O'Donnell, 42, was keen to try out a metal detector for the first time.

On Wednesday, he went out to Wellington Town Belt and within five minutes he got a signal. He immediately started digging.

Dan O'Donnell with his daughter Francie. (Supplied to Stuff)

His first and most surreal discovery was two firearms along with a bunch of bullets and knives in "well-wrapped" packages.

O'Donnell said he borrowed a metal detector from a friend a couple of days ago to try out the hobby.

"I was casually giving it a go. I'd only been doing it for about five minutes and I got the signal and then it took a long time to try and get it [buried material] out.

"It was just buried right in the middle of an old path."

The guns, bullets and other stuff was wrapped in packages about 30 centimetres underground, he said.

The Wellington man found two guns buried underground in Wellington Town Belt on Wednesday. (Supplied to Stuff)

"It was quite big. It took quite a long time to get it out and it had these tree roots grown over it."

When O'Donnell pulled the packages out of the ground, he knew it was something "pretty suspicious".

"I didn't know what it was and then I pulled it out. It was such long bag.

"It had many layers of things over them and 11 of the layers was newspaper dated 1993.

"I had opened one of them a little bit just to confirm that it was actually a gun... and then I called the police."

The police came straight away, he said.

"They [police officers] opened it all up and they told me it was AK-47.

"Apparently they [guns] are an AK-47 and pump action shotgun, along with a bunch of accessories and ammo.

O'Donnell said tree roots had grown over the packets and the guns were wrapped in newspapers dating back to 1993. (Supplied to Stuff)

O'Donnell, who lives in Newtown, said the firearms and ammunition seemed to be there for a long time.

"I didn't feel like there was any risk around it.

"There were newspapers dating 1993, and tree roots had grown over it so definitely looked like it had been there for 30 years."

A police spokesperson told Stuff at around 12:45pm [on Wednesday], they received a report that a man had uncovered two firearms buried off of Russell Terrace.

"A forensic examination of the located items will be conducted."

This article originally appeared on Stuff and is republished here with permission.