If none of the above work out then it’s always fun to do terminal ballistics testing with various calibers
You can lead a horticulture,
but you can't make her think.
Reads as if Dispatch sent over a "gun nu... enthusiast"...
I used to roll up on street gamblers, gazelles who play craps on the street corner in what is commonly referred to as 'the ghetto', they'd run off after their lookouts announced my presence by yelling "ROLLERS" or "FIVE 0" anything not spent on my lunch/dinner/green fees/Copenhagen would get booked under "Found Property" This of course leaves a 'paper trail'. I'd wager that Your Mother-In-Law/Your Wife/You would've felt a lot better if a receipt was left by the responding Officer?
Found an Apple 6 phone on my propery right after some missing deer stands and cameras were discovered. It was locked so I took it to a friend of mine who is a forensic IT guy for our local sheriffs department. He couldn't unlock it without paying $2500 to Apple to break the encryption. Even in a homicide investigation they get charged that fee. Bummer!
Could be a burner phone some drug runner threw out of an airplane
Probably not, had a half empty bottle of Jack next to it! I think it fell off a 4 wheeler, we had some damage to foodplots from one.
Instead of speculating on the internet why don't you call the police department and see if it was inventoried? We don't issue receipts for stuff that's turned into us as unwanted, lost or abandoned...but we do inventory it and with a gun a short incident report. Guns have to be disposed with rules...department use, state crime lab, or if its a historical item it can be sent to a museum otherwise its rots in the property room.