A Marine veteran who spent months in a Mexican prison after trying to carry an heirloom shotgun across the border arrived home.
Jon Hammar of Palmetto Bay arrived home with his father Monday morning.
"I just wanted to get him in my vehicle and get out of there," said Jon Hammar, Sr.
He was released Friday from a prison in Matamoros, Mexico.
"All the pieces were in place, legally, but it was not happening and that pressure from our side," said Hammar Sr., "the Chamber of Commerce in Matamoros was petitioning the Mexican government."
"Because they were losing business there from Americans?" asked Local 10's Glenna Milberg.
"Exactly," he answered.
Hammar Sr. said the two stopped in San Pedro overnight because his son wanted to go to the beach.
"We drove over there and we spent the night there in a hotel and he got up, I didn't realize it until later in the day when I he told me, but he got up before sun up and went out to the beach and watched the sunrise," said Hammar Sr.
Hammar was hospitalized over the weekend in Louisiana as he drove to South Florida with his father. Hammar's mother says the 27 year old had a bad chest cold and a stomach ailment before his release from the prison.
Hammar was headed to Costa Rica in August when he drove across the Mexican border. U.S. authorities told him he could declare the unloaded shotgun at the border. Mexican officials, however, said it was illegal and sent Hammar to prison.
"I was trying to explain to Jonny how rough it was on us and he's telling me -- we had a great ride back, talking through a lot of things and he was telling me the ugly things that he went through -- but we were under fire as much as he was because we didn't know what the next call was going to bring," said Hammar Sr.