An American tourist accused of ammunition possession told a magistrate she'd only seen bullets "in a cowboy movie" before they were discovered in her luggage at the airport.

An x-ray machine operator spotted the eleven bullets in the rear pocket of Lucy Stackler's carry-on case as she was about to board a JetBlue flight home to New York on September 27.

Mrs. Stackler had been visiting the Island for a golfing tournament with her husband Walter, 73, staying at the Mid Ocean Club. They were both arrested with Mrs. Stackler initially telling the Police she had no idea how the bullets had got into her bag.

"It was a complete surprise. I was shocked," she stated in answer to questions during her trial yesterday from defence lawyer Saul Froomkin QC.

However, in a second Police interview the day after her arrest she claimed that she had remembered how they got there while she was sitting in her cell all night thinking about it.

In a version of events she repeated on the witness stand yesterday, she said her handyman knocked over a box in her basement as he moved some furniture around in May this year and the bullets spilled out onto the ground.

As she put it yesterday: "I was shocked and I felt this was not an appropriate thing for a working person to see." So, she said, she scooped them up, placed them in a bag and put them in the rear zipped section of her carry-on case.

Mrs. Stackler told the Police her case was checked "very carefully" by officials at JFK airport in New York when she was en route to Bermuda on September 23, but was not checked by Bermuda Customs on arrival.

Quizzed by Mr. Froomkin over whether she'd ever seen bullets before in any circumstances prior to the airport discovery, Mrs. Stackler replied: "Maybe in a cowboy movie."

Asked how this squared with her version of events in the basement a few months prior, she replied: "Things fell down and I thought they were bullets but not from first-hand knowledge. I put two and two together but I had never seen bullets before in my life."

Mrs. Stackler confirmed to the court that her husband has a firing range at their home in Oyster Bay, New York, but she could not explain how the bullets got into the box that overturned or whether they belonged to him.

Cross-examined by prosecutor Cindy Clarke over the incident in the basement, she said she forgot about putting the bullets into the case after they spilled out, and told no one about it.

Ms Clarke inquired: "So even though you were shocked, you didn't talk to your husband about it?"

Mrs. Stackler reiterated: "I forgot about it. I didn't think about it,"

She said she'd not used the bag in question since the incident because she'd not travelled overseas and the handle was broken. She got her husband to fix it shortly before their trip to Bermuda.

"So I assume that because you needed it, you remembered it was broken but you didn't remember you put bullets in it?" pressed Ms Clarke.

"No, I didn't remember it," insisted the accused, going on to add: "If I had remembered I had put them in there, I never would have brought them here. I'm not that crazy. Never in a million years."

After Mrs. Stackler finished her testimony, bringing evidence in the case to a conclusion, Ms Clarke told Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner that the Crown's case is that forgetfulness is not a legal defence. She argued that either Mrs. Stackler was aware she was in possession of the bullets when she was in Bermuda or that they got into the bag in circumstances where she ought to have been aware.

Legal arguments over the issues raised by the case are due to continue today. The maximum sentence Mrs. Stackler could face if convicted is five years' imprisonment, a $10,000 fine or both. However, Ms Clarke has indicated that in the circumstances, the Crown would accept a conditional discharge being meted out.

Mr. Froomkin, who would like to see Mrs. Stackler handed nothing more than an absolute discharge if she ends up being convicted, told the magistrate at one point yesterday: "I say this almost facetiously that people bringing ammunition out of Bermuda ought not to be punished."

He complained about the time and money spent by Government on bringing such cases which "do not merit prosecution".

However, Mr. Warner said that since the case has been prosecuted, he has to consider all the issues and evidence carefully before reaching a verdict.