A supermarket employee in New Mexico got a big surprise when a gun was found in a package of frozen meat.

The incident took place at an Albertsons supermarket in Roswell when an employee discovered a loaded handgun was in with the packaged food.

The shipment of frozen meat supposedly came from a meat packing plant in Colo., according to NBC News.

The handgun found was a .38 Super with seven rounds of ammunition and the employee reportedly cleaned the weapon before taking to the local authorities.

"The big cases of meat come in a box," said Sabrina Morales, a spokesperson for the Roswell Police Department. "When he opened it, he saw the firearm. It wasn't packaged inside with the meat, but it was in the same box."

It's bad enough to find a loaded gun in packaged meat, but that wasn't the only cause for alarm that was discovered.

"The other part that's disturbing is the date on the package was June 8, 2011," Morales continued. "I don't know how long meat stays well-frozen, but that was the date of the package he was opening."

There are many ways the gun may have ended up in the meat, but all options are open as investigators look into the case.

"We could speculate on a lot of things," Sgt. Jim Preston said, as reported by Yahoo News. "It could have been someone just dropped it there, or it could have been something that someone put in there trying to hide it for 100 different reasons."

While there are no missing reports matching a handgun of its description, police are processing the serial number on the weapon in the National Crime Information Center database to find who may be the owner.

The process reportedly may take a few weeks while the mystery of the gun continues.