YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Lyndhurst man who’d locked the keys in his car was arrested after he tried to hide an illegal handgun from an officer who stopped to help him, Saddle Brook police said.
Dominick Agueros-Rega, 18, was trying to get into his car on Market Street around 8:40 p.m. when Sgt. Leigh Cadigan stopped to help, Deputy Chief Robert White said this afternoon.
Cadigan used a “lockout” tool to get in, then asked Agueros-Rega for ID to prove that the car was his, White said.
Augeros-Rega “became frantic and began rummaging through the vehicle for his wallet,” the deputy chief said. “At one point [he] reached into a backpack on the front seat and removed an item, which he quickly concealed in his pants pocket. He repeated the same action again a few seconds later.”
Concerned for his safety, Cadigan ordered the driver away from the vehicle and looked inside.
Shining his flashlight on the backpack, he spotted a black, semi-automatic handgun, which he seized, the deputy chief said.
He also saw three plastic bags of pot in the center console, White said.
The Walther P22 pistol “had been rendered inoperative,” he said, but “the law prohibits it, and [Agueros-Rega] had no legitimate reason for having it.”
At headquarters, police found a prescription bottle of Xanax pills in another person’s name and several empty glassine bags commonly used to carry prescription drugs, the deputy chief said.
Agueros-Rega was later released pending a Dec. 3 appearance in Municipal Court on charges of unlawful possession of the handgun, the pot, the Xanax and drug paraphernalia, he said.