Man Arrested With Gun and Hatchet on Lower Township NJ’s Higbee Beach

Let's face it, as you're packing up that huge beach-thing on wheels to take the family to the beach, you're probably not packing a handgun and a hatchet.

Who brings a gun to a beach, other than someone who wants to cause trouble?

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Who brings a hatchet to a beach, other than someone who really doesn't understand what a hatchet is used for?

By the way, Wikipedia describes a hatchet as, "... a single-handed striking tool with a sharp blade on one side used to cut and split wood, and a hammerhead on the other side. Hatchets may also be used for hewing when making flattened surfaces on logs..."

Let's face it, on a normal day, there's not much hewing going on on HIgbee Beach - or any other South Jersey beach.

So.... when a guy shows up to a local beach with a gun and hatchet he looks out of place.

That's what happened Saturday afternoon, when someone called police about a suspicious man and his odd choice of beach apparatus.

Lower Township Police responded to Higbee Beach just before 2:30pm and were able to locate the man at the entrance of the beach, and arrested him without incident.

Police say they located both the gun and the hatchet in the parking lot of the beach, and safely retrieved them. Further investigation found the gun to be a pellet gun. (We assume the hatchet was, well, a hatchet."

Arrested in the case was Nelson P. Delisa, 38, of Levittown, Pennsylvania. In addition to weapons charges, he was socked with charges of  "Possession of CDS and Possession/Distribution Hypodermic Syringe.

He's been released on a summons to appear in court.

SOURCE: Lower Township Police Department