An elderly woman walked up to a policeman stationed at 46th and Market streets, reached into her purse and pulled out a handgun.
Holding the weapon up to the officer, the woman - likely pushing 70 - gingerly dropped it into his hands and walked away with a pair of basketball tickets in her hand.
This trade was one of many at West Philadelphia's "Guns for Groceries" event on Saturday, during which residents were able to hand in their firearms, no questions asked, for $200 in food vouchers and a pair of Philadelphia 76ers tickets.
With Philadelphia hampered by a rising murder rate, the event was an effort to take guns "out of harm's way, out of homes - environments where people can just pick them up," said State Sen. Vincent Hughes, who organized the event along with mayoral candidate Chaka Fattah and Councilwoman Blondell Brown.
Of 406 homicide victims in Philadelphia last year, 344 were killed with firearms.
"Guns for Groceries" did its part to combat that trend by collecting 267 guns, including semi-automatic handguns, rifles, sawn-off shotguns and a Korean AK-47.
Philadelphians wanting to get rid of their guns walked up to a cluster of vans outside Hughes' office at 4601 Market St. Saturday and handed their weapons over to a group of police officers manning the event.
In the bitter cold, officers opened the guns, many still loaded with live ammunition, and placed them in the back of a van, gradually adding to the pile of gleaming barrels.
Old ladies who would never seem to be packing heat pulled out small leather bags from their purses, revealing tiny pistols, alongside men with sleek rifles wrapped in flowery blankets.
One man - who, like most handing in weapons, did not want to be named - said he'd had his rifle to defend his home.
"It's like a fire escape," he said. "You hope you'll never have to use it."
For most people at the event, it was the prospect of their children gaining access to a gun that drove them to give up their weapons.
"I don't want my grandkids getting hold of this," said one elderly man who was turning in a revolver that he had owned for 30 years.
The day's haul included such oddities as a Japanese World War II rifle, with the imperial sun clearly visible on the metal, and an SKS assault rifle, a Korean reproduction of an AK-47.
"This is as bad as you're going to find on the street," Philadelphia Police Officer Erik Bullock said of the Korean rifle. He explained that a shot from this kind of weapon could go right through a policeman's bulletproof vest.
At a noon press conference, Fattah, who also represents Penn's district as a U.S. Representative, said the event was integral in making Philadelphia safer.
The drop-off is "getting guns off the street, out of homes - guns that could be used in anger," he said.
The West Philadelphia drop-off follows a similar event in North Philadelphia on Martin Luther King Day, during which 252 weapons were handed in.
Accompanying the initiative is the Illegal Guns hotline, 215-546-TIPS, through which people can report illegal guns. If their report leads to an arrest within 72 hours, callers can receive $1,000 worth of vouchers.
