MIAMI (AP) — A Marine veteran who spent months in a Mexican prison after trying to carry an heirloom shotgun across the border had to be hospitalized on his way home to Florida.

Jon Hammar of Palmetto Bay was released Friday from a prison in Matamoros, Mexico. Relatives say he 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. He’s expected home in time for Christmas.

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.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.