The loaded shotgun found by a Surrey homeowner cleaning his garage may have belonged to the victim of a gang-related shooting nearly a decade ago, a CTV News investigation has found.

The home, which Vir Mohan and his wife Conny are renovating for a new family, used to be a high-traffic area for people buying hard drugs, said neighbours.

“So much traffic, like drug addicts lined up the back alley, people coming and going non-stop,” said neighbour Claudena McParland.

The connection to the past was unearthed when Vir Mohan saw a package tucked in the insulation in the garage ceiling.

“I slowly undid the front package and as I’m doing it I noticed the handle,” he said. “That’s when I decided that I’d better call the RCMP.”

Police cordoned off the house, eventually removing the shotgun and the blasting caps, which are used to trigger explosives.

“It was scary,” Mohan said. “It could have gone off. That’s why I was telling my family members to stay away.”

Conny Mohan said the find took her by surprise.

“We thought we’d cleared everything out. We never imagined we’d find something like that,” she said.

Records show one previous owner was a man named Bruce Tedesco, who owned the Whalley house for nine years.

He was a Harley Davidson rider who worked for CN Rail, according to his obituary. Records show he had several assault convictions, but neighbours say it was his son who spent more time in the garage, dealing drugs.

Tedesco’s son, Shawn Kidd, was shot dead in 2006 outside Holly Elementary School in what police at the time called a gang-related shooting.

CTV News tracked his wife to a Surrey trailer park. She said Tedesco was “a family man” who would not have had shotguns in the house.

“We haven’t been in that house in over a year,” she said. “I’ve got nothing to tell you.”

Tedesco’s sister Sheila McNeil told CTV News Tedesco was a hard worker who raised a family and had little control over what went on in the garage, which he rented out.

“Bruce would never have had guns in his house or on his property,” Sheila McNeil said. “Bruce was a good father, son, brother and friend. Bruce might have been rough around the edges and wasn’t a saint but he was a good man who lived for one thing: his son.”

The Surrey RCMP are investigating the origin of the gun.

The Mohans say they’re not fazed by the possible connection to Surrey’s drug underworld as they prepare to enjoy their new home, which they bought last spring.

“To me it doesn’t matter,” said Vir Mohan. “We just moved in, we liked the property, that’s all we cared about. We don’t care about what happened a long time ago.”