Idling Car Leads to Stolen Gun and Drugs in Atlantic City, NJ

A car left idling unattended on a street in the World's Play Ground led to the arrest of its driver and the seizure of a stolen gun and drugs.

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The Atlantic City Police Department says one of their officers was on routine patrol in the area of the 1700 block of Atlantic Avenue at around 8:00 this past Saturday night when he saw an unattended vehicle left idling in the road.

Eventually, 28-year-old Dashawn Stotts of Egg Harbor City returned to the scene and identified himself as the driver of the car, which police learned was not registered.

Another officer responded to the scene with a drug-detecting K9, which altered officials to narcotics in the vehicle.

A subsequent search of the vehicle yielded a stolen handgun and the discovery of a large quantity of narcotics. Stotts was found to be in possession of various narcotics that included 8 grams of suspected crack cocaine, one wax fold of suspected heroin, 29 Oxycodone pills, prescription Codeine pills, 39 grams of marijuana, and $500 in US currency believed to be proceeds of narcotics sales. It was also determined that the handgun had been reported stolen.

Stotts was arrested and charged with the following:

• Unlawful possession of a weapon
• Possession of a handgun for an unlawful purpose
• Possession of a weapon while committing a CDS offense
• Certain persons not to possess weapons
• Five counts of possession of CDS
• Possession of CDS with intent to distribute
• Five counts of distribution of CDS within 500 feet of a public park
• Receiving stolen property
• Possession of CDS paraphernalia
• Obstruction

Stotts was remanded to the Atlantic County Justice Facility.

The public is reminded that charges are accusations and all persons are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.