The police confirmed details from a report by TMZ. The LAPD confirmed that a construction worker found the knife at some point (they were not willing to say when). One theory is the knife was found during the demolition of the Rockingham home in 1998.

The worker, whose name the police don’t know, then found an L.A. police officer — who worked in the traffic division and was off-duty at the time — on the street and told him what he had found. Instead of reporting the knife to his superiors, this officer kept it at his house for years.

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“The person we received this knife from is a retired LAPD officer who retired in the late ’90s,” the LAPD said.

Department officials learned about the knife’s possession “within the last month” and were working to find out whether the knife is actual evidence. No details could be given about the knife and its condition, or what kind of knife it was.

The knife will be examined for hair and fingerprints now, and eventually DNA and biological evidence.

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Police said the knife is “possibly in connection” to the Simpson case, but the case is still “ongoing,” and they won’t know more until the investigation is complete.

Police said how this happened (if true) is surprising: “I would think that an LAPD officer … would know that anytime you come into contact with evidence that you should, and shall, submit that to investigators. So I don’t know what the circumstances are, why that didn’t happen — if that’s accurate — or if this whole story is bogus from the get go involving a variety of people.”

There will be no administrative charges filed against the cop who kept the knife, and police aren’t sure whether any criminal charges will be filed.

Simpson went on trial in 1995 for the double homicide of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman in 1994. He was found not guilty of committing the crimes. Because he was found not guilty, he cannot be retried for the murders, no matter what forensics find on the knife.

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Simpson is serving a prison sentence in Nevada for a number of felony charges, including armed robbery and kidnapping, stemming from an arrest in 2007.

A television show titled “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” is currently airing on FX. It chronicles the events that led to Simpson being acquitted of all charges in the double-homicide case.