It would be harder for them to not file some sort of report on this matter.

That's a sloppy cop. Bet no one told on him.

"Pssst! Fred! Your GUN man....some guy found your GUN in the toilet! Yeah, he turned it in at the office! Quick, come and get it out of here before I go off duty..."

He couldn't get the gun back till he did.

with the local police. I'm betting they did.

I certainly wouldn't want my fingerprints on a gun that was ditched in a restroom.

If the park was crowded, why couldn't he contact someone else to call the police and warn others not to go into that restroom?

And did he at the very least notify the police afterwards?

I sure would want a department head to know about an undercover cop who was stupid enough to leave his loaded firearm behind in the restroom of a crowded park.

vicinity of the restroom. It's a very large park, and the people were in the picnic areas, not hanging out around a single stall restroom.

Also, he grew up hunting and fishing (only fishing for decades), so he's not as nervous around guns as I would be.

He was there while the office people contacted the police, so he didn't have to do it himself. And he saw the cop having to fill out all the paperwork, so he knows that was done.

It is much more likely he was just an off-duty cop.

This situation would not be legally defined as 'open carry'. This was just transporting a holstered gun while in public.

I would have done the same thing as what this man did.

And it comes with a lot of responsibility. If i go into a bathroom and see that someone has not taken that responsibility seriously, there will hell to pay. Mountains of paperwork would be the least of the owners problems. This person should not be in control of a handgun if he gets so sidetracked while taking a shit that he forgets he has a gun with him.