MIRAMAR BEACH — An off-duty U.S. Marshal left his loaded gun in a dressing room at the Silver Sands Outlet Mall on Sunday afternoon.
A customer at Kenneth Cole found the gun in the dressing room.
She alerted a store clerk who then called the Walton County Sheriff’s Office.
By the time deputies arrived, the law officer had realized he had left his gun behind and was walking back in to retrieve it, said Catherine Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office.
“He felt pretty awful about it,” she said.
The officer is a U.S. Marshal out of Atlanta who is vacationing in the area, Rodriguez said.
After checking that the officer had all the correct permits and licenses, he was sent on his way, she said.
No charges were filed.
Kenneth Cole store manager Kenny Smith said the man left about 1:30 p.m. and returned about an hour later.
The store was busy, but there were no incidents with the weapon, which he was thankful for, he said.
Smith and his staff do find various items left behind in dressing rooms, but Sunday’s discovery was a rare one.
“You normally find bubblegum, not guns,” he said.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Lauren Sage Reinlie at 850-315-4443 or lreinlie@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @LaurenRnwfdn.