All but 13 of the 1,000 rounds of .45-caliber ammunition that went missing instead of being delivered to the Allegheny Township Police Department last week have been recovered.

Police Chief Duane Fisher became suspicious of the Nov. 8 delivery by United Parcel Service when he saw the driver carrying the box, which should have weighed 50 pounds, in one hand.

When the box was opened, it was empty.

The chief refused the delivery, and UPS launched an internal investigation to determine what happened.

On Monday afternoon, the ammunition was delivered to the station, minus 13 rounds.

“The number of missing rounds is consistent with the number loaded into a .45-caliber handgun — 12 in the magazine and one in the chamber,” Fisher said. “That leads me to think that the missing ammunition was removed on purpose.”

The best UPS could tell Fisher is they believe it was an internal handling error and that, somehow, the ammunition fell out of the original box before it was delivered.

“That really doesn’t make sense to me,” he said. “If the box fell open, then where are the missing rounds?”

UPS told Fisher the box of ammunition that went missing Nov. 8 was located at a shipping depot in New Stanton. But it also had made its way to a distribution hub in Kansas that receives items that have been misdirected or have packaging that has been damaged in transit.

Ammunition typically is packaged 50 to a box on a tray that prevents them from striking the other rounds.

The chief said it would be unlikely for one of the boxes to open if it fell, and the one with the missing ammo did not appear to be damaged.

He said the missing ammo also appears to have been removed from the tray in the same manner it would be if loaded into a weapon.

“The individual boxes of ammo looked a little aged, but they weren’t broken apart or anything,” Fisher said.

The ammunition the Allegheny Township Police Department uses is bought through a state bulk purchasing contract with OfficerStore in Wharton, Fayette County, at a cost that is nearly half the typical retail price.

The ammunition then is drop shipped to buyers from a supplier in Minnesota.

Supply chain issues have caused significant delays in filling orders for ammo, Fisher said. Orders placed with OfficerStore can take between eight months and two years for delivery.

All ammunition shipments in the United States must be done by a private company such as UPS or FedEx because federal law prohibits the shipment of ammunition through the U.S. Postal Service.

Fisher said news about the missing ammunition prompted calls from a number of residents offering to donate or sell rounds to the department at cost so its 10 full-time and two part-time officers have what they need.

“It was nice for people to ask if they could help us out, but we were able to buy what we needed,” Fisher said.

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