Bullet Removed from Erial House

Police are investigating the origin of a bullet removed from an Erial home this weekend.

It appears the bullet—as well as another apparent bullet still lodged in a neighboring home as of Monday afternoon—was fired some time ago, but no one can say for sure at this point in the investigation.

The Monticello Drive home is located nearby a controversial firing range that has its neighbors crying foul over what they claim to be unbearable volume coming from the gun club's target range.

Police were called to the home on the 100 block of Monticello Drive at about 2:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon. Police pulled the bullet from the front of the home's second story after a Blackwood Fire Co. ladder truck was summoned to assist investigating officers.

It remains unclear where the bullet came from or when it was fired.

"We're trying to figure it out," Gloucester Township Police Deputy Chief David Harkins said on Monday.

The homeowner told police a window contractor discovered the bullet hole at least a week earlier, Harkins noted.

The Iron Horse Rifle and Pistol Club range was shut down for a time after the club was ordered to change the direction for its targets four or five years ago after a bullet struck another Monticello Drive home, according to neighbors.

Monticello Drive resident Jim Weightman told Patch he believes the bullet removed from the home located just across the street from his own on Sunday was probably fired several years ago, before the club was ordered to move its targets.

That probability doesn't offer Weightman or his neighbors much comfort, though.

"The point is if they were missing their targets then, they're missing their targets now," he said, noting the targets now have shooters firing their weapons toward Freeway Golf Club and Timber Creek Regional High School properties.

Weightman reported that he and a second neighbor recently found what they believe to be another bullet in the siding at the neighbor's home—this one at waist level, near its rear, sliding-glass door.

"We're still picking slugs out of our homes," a clearly agitated Weightman said.

The recent discovery of the bullet was reported to police a little more than 24 hours before residents of the 55-and-over development Four Seasons at Forest Meadows sat down to discuss the noise issue with Iron Horse officers and the land's long-time owner, Watson Waddell, in a meeting arranged by Mayor David Mayer.

One Forest Meadows resident described the noise she hears from the shooting range this way: "It sounds like cannons."

The club has called the Waddell family property off Garwood Road its home since 1959—long before Forest Meadows was built.

After several residents complained about the noise coming from the Iron Horse shooting range at a Township Council meeting last month, Police Chief W. Harry Earle reported that police checked out the property and found that it met all safety standards.

Waddell declined to comment on the noise issue.