Fully loaded pizza, topped with semiautomatic gun, leads to four arrests
Pepperoni. Canadian bacon. Sausage. Semiautomatic handgun.
A fully loaded pizza discovered by Kern County Sheriff’s deputies led to the arrest of four people early Tuesday morning during a routine traffic stop near Rosamond High School.
Deputies found a pizza box among a stash of methamphetamine, Xanax, fentanyl and cocaine recovered at the scene. When deputies popped open the delivery container, they spotted a loaded gun sitting atop an uneaten pie.
Deputies initially pulled over Danny Carson, 47, at 3 a.m. for driving a vehicle without its headlights turned on in a residential neighborhood, sheriff’s officials said.
Carson had a misdemeanor warrant and was on parole for a previous weapons violation, according to deputies.
Deputies searched his car and also found an additional loaded handgun, a sawed-off shotgun, more than $1,000 in cash, scales, narcotic paraphernalia and packaging, sheriff’s officials said.
As California has enacted stricter gun regulations, guns have been involved in a higher proportion of violent crimes, which have been on the rise.
Carson was arrested along with three passengers in his vehicle: 47-year-old Benjamin Vasquez, 30-year-old Krista Rutledge and 18-year-old Saydee Vandehey.
All four were charged with a variety of counts, including conspiracy to commit a crime, transportation of narcotics, concealment of a weapon in a vehicle, possession of cocaine for sale and felony possession of ammunition, according to deputies.
The four were booked into the Kern County-Lerdo Justice Facility in Bakersfield.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
