Lauren Tannehill, the wife of Miami Dolphins starting quarterback Ryan Tannehill, left behind a high-powered rifle when she returned a rental vehicle recently, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said.
Lauren Tannehill, 26, rented a 2013 Nissan Rogue from E-Z Rent-A-Car at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Jan. 4 at about 5:50 p.m., the BSO said in an incident report obtained by NBC 6 Wednesday.
She returned about two hours later to swap the Nissan for a different vehicle – but afterward she left behind a LMT AR-15 rifle that was secured in its case in the back seat of the Nissan, the report said.
A person who rented the vehicle later that night discovered the rifle inside the Nissan, and contacted E-Z Rent-A-Car and told them about it. Judith Fleissig, 58, of Rochester, New York was instructed to turn over the weapon to the nearest police station, and on the evening of Jan. 6 she turned the rifle to the Hillsboro Beach Police Department, the report said.
Ryan Tannehill considers what happened a personal matter, Dolphins spokesman Harvey Greene told NBC 6.
“He said it’s personal and we’re going to respect that viewpoint,” Greene said.
BSO spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion told the South Florida Sun Sentinel about the rifle, “Though dangerous if it would have landed in the wrong hands, it’s not criminal.”
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“They simply forgot it,” she said of the rifle.
The AR-15 is worth about $2,000, according to the BSO report. It’s a semiautomatic weapon, and the “notoriety behind it is it’s a civilian version of a military gun,” said Justin Lampert, an owner of National Armory in Pompano Beach, the Sun Sentinel reported.
Lampert told the newspaper that the AR-15 is used mostly among collectors, gun range enthusiasts and hunters, especially boar hunters.
After Fleissig turned in the rifle, its owner was notified and was going to follow up with Hillsboro Beach Police to recover their property, the BSO report said.
Lauren Tannehill is a model who also appeared with her husband on the HBO football reality series "Hard Knocks." He just finished his second season with the Dolphins.
