Idaho State Police Cpl. Emery Webster was not just protecting the public at the scene of where a truck spilled 15,000 bullets on Interstate 86.
It was his truck and ammunition.Webster, who owns Quality Ammunition in Pocatello, was the first officer there early Tuesday when traffic set off 9 mm shells that had accidentally spilled from a truck, said his wife, Camille, an ISP dispatcher.
No one was hurt and no serious damage was reported on the eastbound lanes 50 miles west of Pocatello. Police closed the lanes for an hour and used brooms to push the ammo off the road.
Camille Webster said the truck drivers were on their way back from a gun show in Portland when the truck lost its tailgate and spilled the bullets.
"The kids (driving the truck) weren't aware that they had lost anything, not until (Webster) called them the next day and told them to come help pick it up," Camille Webster said.
She said a truck driver had radioed police that the ammunition came from a truck with Webster's license plate numbers.
The investigation was turned over to another police district because it was outside Webster's jurisdiction.
"He was out there on traffic control, but he was more there as the owner. He was picking (the cartridges) up, he was able to recover most of them - anything that didn't get run over," Camille Webster said.