It’s the midnight shift and Darrell and George are on patrol. They get a call of a possible break-in at a medical facility. A technician will meet the officers at the scene.

As the two cops arrive they kill the patrol car’s lights and step out quietly. A man identifying himself as a technician holds open the rear door.

Darrell and George have done this kind of building search in the dark so many times they go on "automatic." After about ten minutes our guys are satisfied there’s nobody in the building, nor does anything appear to be disturbed. "Thank you, officers," the technician says as our guys get back into their patrol car.

Two weeks of uneventful duty go by until it’s time to report to the firearms range for weapons re-qualification. The first stage is shooting at a target from seven feet away. That’s the likely distance of most police versus bad-guy shoot-outs.

Darrell takes his position. At the signal he draws and fires. CLICK. Nothing. CLICK, again. Still nothing!

After a detailed examination of Darrell’s duty weapon, the sheriff’s firearms trainer says, "No wonder you couldn’t shoot, your weapon is completely magnetized. Look!" The armorer uses individual parts of Darrell’s pistol to pick up paper clips.

"Your firing pin is stuck to the side of the channel in the slide. It can’t strike the primer," the weapons expert says.

By reviewing their recent incident reports, our guys soon realize the problem. The break-in call they took several weeks ago was at a magnetic resonance imaging unit - an MRI lab.

MRI magnets are extremely powerful, and they’re never turned off. Labs post warning signs about metal objects, but Darrell and George did their search in the dark.

Turns out George’s gun is magnetized also. Now there’ll be a routine inspection for magnetized firing pins. As if cops didn’t already have enough to worry about.