I am so upset and angry, at myself and "someone else" involved.
Customer came to check out a pistol. Checked a couple of guns, an XD40 and a Sig P250. As usual, I checked them first and then handed him the weapon each time.
Then, onto something different. He came in actually wanting an XD45 4" Compact, which I didn't exactly have. I did have a tactical length compact and also an XD45 Service 4". I handed him the XD45 5" compact and let him fondle it a bit. I didn't check it first. My mistake.
He handed it back to me, also not checking it himself. I then took out the XD45 Service and decided to dismantle it and put the 4" slide onto the 5" compact frame so he could actually feel a "real" 4" compact model. So, I dismantled the XD45 Service and set the parts on the counter top.
Now, to do the same with the tactical length compact.
I removed the empty magazine and when I racked the slide back on the 5" compact to lock it back, the same one he had just been handling, a
single round of .45acp fell through the empty magwell and hit the glass top counter!
It had been chambered the whole time he was handling it!!
No one to blame but myself. And I am just sick to my stomach and have been all afternoon since.
What happened is this:
Owner of the store occasionally carries some of the weapons we get in stock. I wish this didn't happen, but I don't own the store. He does.
He had been carrying the XD45 Tactical compact for a few days, loaded and chambered.
This morning, I asked him to leave it so I could show it to a customer. He did, he "unloaded it" and he placed it back into its gear box. Later on, when the customer got there, I slid the empty "compact" size magazine into the magwell. The magazine was empty. I never racked the slide.
Never never never assume that ANYONE, no matter who they are, has completely unloaded a weapon!!
Now you know the rest of the story.