I'm real curious as to what might have caused the problem in the first place. I can't see ammunition being the issue, especially if it came from a LE agency and may have only ever seen factory loads. I know there were occasionally police departments back in the 60-70s that reloaded their own .38 Special training ammo, but I think those days are long past. I'd chalk it up to either a bad forging when it left the factory or an armorer thoroughly qualified thru YT videos, if at all. If it was used as a pry bar or dropped off a tower I would expect to see damage deeper than what could normally be polished out. I would not discount the gun being used as an impact weapon by someone who really wasn't very well trained, but don't know that you could really hit someone hard enough to bend a barrel (Oh I've heard some swear it happened, but usually at the range to justify why they didn't shoot very well).
One thing to consider on purported police trade-ins is that they may have not all come from US agencies, and private security companies' trades have come thru inventories also. Either of these later scenarios would probably ensure a relatively low round count, but not necessarily that they were maintained by responsible adults...
