Illegal parking in Brooklyn leads to stolen handgun arrest

BOERUM HILL (WABC) -- Illegal parking led to an arrest for a stolen handgun in Brooklyn Thursday afternoon.

Police say they found a semi-automatic gun inside a car on State Street in Boerum Hill around 3:30 p.m.

Officers became curious when they saw the car parked in front of a fire hydrant. They also noticed that the vehicle was missing a front license plate, which struck them because the rear license indicated that the vehicle was registered in New York where it is required to have both front and rear license plates.

The officers then drove around the block, and when they passed by the vehicle for a second time, they noticed a male, 46-year-old Elliot Perez, exiting the vehicle and attempting to walk away.

The officers stopped Perez to ask him why the vehicle only had one license plate and why he was parked in front of the hydrant. They say he could not provide a logical answer and did not know who the owner of the vehicle was.

The officers conducted a check of the license plate, which revealed that it belonged to a different vehicle. One of the officers then peered inside the vehicle and noticed a handgun protruding from under the driver's side seat.

Police recovered a loaded Industria .38-caliber semi-automatic handgun, and Perez was arrested at the scene.

Further investigation revealed that the gun was reported stolen from Jacksonville, Florida.

Perez is charged with criminal possesion of a weapon, criminal possession of stolen property and failure to display numbered plate.