WOODSIDE EAST, DELAWARE (4/27/2015) A 21-year-old Dover man was arrested after Delaware State Police said they found a stolen gun while investigating a report of drug use in the Meadowbrook Acres community.
The incident happened about 1:15 p.m. Sunday in the 400 block of Lambert Drive.
As troopers were questioning a half dozen people in a driveway about the odor of burnt marijuana, police said, a man later identified as Stephen Wheeler began to walk away.
Troopers detained him and as they were doing a pat-down search a loaded 9 mm pistol fell from his waist to the ground, partially protruding from the bottom of his pants leg, police said.
A computer check found the gun had been stolen along with ammunition from a home in the 3000 block of Irish Hill Road on Jan. 8.
Wheeler was charged with possession of a firearm by a person prohibited, carrying a concealed deadly weapon and receiving a stolen firearm.
He was being held at Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna in lieu of $12,000 secured bond.