Man walking his dog finds loaded AR-15 on Campbell Creek Trail

A man walking his dog on the Campbell Creek Trail stumbled across an unusual sight Tuesday morning: a loaded AR-15.

William Thrash said he was walking near Taku Lake, east of C Street and north of Dimond Boulevard, when he spotted the semi-automatic rifle in the grass a few feet off the bike path.

“My first thought was, ‘Is this a real one or is it fake?’” Thrash said.

It was real ⁠— when Thrash pulled out the magazine, he found bullets inside. A round was loaded into the chamber, he said.

After calling police, Thrash posted a video of the rifle to Facebook “just to let people know,” he said, citing Monday’s police shooting in Dave Rose Park and recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.

“Officers took possession of the weapon and transported it to APD Evidence,” Anchorage police spokeswoman Renee Oistad wrote in an email. “The gun was not listed as stolen.”

While finding the rifle was strange, Thrash said it didn’t make him feel unsafe and wouldn’t deter him from walking in the area.

“Just another day in the park, I guess,” he said.