A New Jersey police department confiscated a replica handgun on March 8, 2016. Can you tell which is the fake?
WOOLWICH TWP. -- When Cpl. Chris Gregory and Ptl. Matt Boyko first found the gun, they didn't know what they were dealing with. Sure, the suspect had told them it was a BB gun, but at first glance, there was no way to tell the difference.
"When [Boyko] recovered it, I was standing 5 feet away," said Gregory. "I couldn't tell it was a fake."
It all began with a routine traffic stop at 3:45 on Tuesday, just a few hundred yards from the Woolwich municipal building. A license plate reader had indicated the driver's license was suspended, and the officers said they smelled marijuana as they approached the vehicle. When they asked the man to get out of his car, the driver, whose name was not released, told them he had a BB gun tucked in his waistband. The officers handcuffed the driver and detained the two other occupants of the car, though police noted that the passengers were not arrested.
Police confiscated the gun without incident, and the man was charged with unlawful possession of an imitation firearm, possession of an imitation firearm for an unlawful purpose and possession of a small amount of marijuana. In short, everything went right.
The next day, Det. Chris Beckett posted a photo on the department's Facebook page. The picture shows two guns sitting side by side, with a handful of cartridges scattered on the table.
The goal of the post, he said, was to give people a real-life example of the challenges police officers face in the line of duty.
"We want to have an open relationship with the public," Beckett said. "They back us a lot of the time, and we want them to know what we do."
A few of those who responded got the question wrong completely, while several more admitted they had no idea (we'll get to the answer in a moment).
"It was stamped Smith & Wesson, and had a serial number," Boyko said.
"This was a split-second decision," said Gregory.
It wasn't until the officers cleared the gun that they were sure it was a replica. The interior of the barrel, as well as the magazine, showed it could not have fired a 9mm round. From the exterior, however, there was no telling -- especially when the gun was tucked into someone's pants. It was not clear whether the replica had been manufactured with an orange safety tip, but it did not have any tip when police found it.
At the end of the day Wednesday, Woolwich police announced that the gun on the left side of the photo was the fake.
"None of us here would've been able to tell," said Chief Rich Jaramillo as he sat in the police station with Gregory, Beckett and Boyko. "These guys handled a heightened situation that could've gone the other way. Their training and professionalism kept the situation cool and calm."
Beckett added that the suspect's behavior had been a major factor.
"It's a two-way street," he said of interactions between civilians and cops. "No one is asking you to completely bow down to a police officer or beg, but you can use common sense."
"A reasonable person does not carry a BB gun in their waistband," said Jaramillo. Bad decision making aside, he added, "this was good police work."
Andy Polhamus may be reached at apolhamus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ajpolhamus. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.