Did someone shoot the pig for lunch?

updated 11:55 a.m. ET Oct. 21, 2005

ORMOND BEACH, Fla. - Was the pig a victim of a rural drive-by shooting?

That's one theory a Publix spokesman offered to explain how a bullet wound up in an Ormond Beach woman's pork loin.

Diane Johnson's son-in-law found the bullet in a pork loin casserole she served Tuesday to her family. She said there was no mistaking the projectile's distinct shape in the pork loin she bought at a local Publix grocery store.

All meat is scanned with a metal detector before reaching Publix shelves, said Dwaine Stevens, spokesman for the company's northeast Florida district.

It's not clear how the scanners missed the bullet -- or how the bullet got in the pork loin in the first place.

Stevens said someone may have fired into a herd of grazing livestock.

According to the Wisconsin Pork Association, professional slaughterhouses don't shoot animals, for employee safety and meat quality concerns.

Johnson, 74, said she was satisfied with a $10 dollar refund and another fresh pork loin from Publix.

She said she didn't plan to sue because no one got hurt.

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