Columbus police recovered a stolen handgun along with drugs and counterfeit currency during a traffic stop.
Officers stopped a vehicle at 2:30 a.m. Sunday near 17th Street and Cottage Avenue that appeared to be falsely registered, said Lt. Matt Harris, Columbus Police Department spokesman.
While speaking with the vehicle’s occupants, the officers smelled the odor of burned marijuana coming from inside the vehicle, Harris said. One of the vehicle’s occupants, later identified as Terrance A. Tatum, 27, Columbus, told officers he had smoked marijuana earlier in the evening.
While searching the vehicle, officers located a backpack near where Tatum was seated that contained a handgun that was reported stolen from Bartholomew County earlier this year, counterfeit money and a small amount of heroin and methamphetamine, Harris said.
Tatum was arrested on preliminary charges of possession of methamphetamine, theft of a firearm, carrying a handgun without a license, counterfeiting, possession of heroin and possession of a synthetic drug.
For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Republic.
