During routine traffic stop, Oklahoma police discover a gun, rattlesnake, and uranium

(Image credit: iStock)

published 12 July 2019

It all started when police in Guthrie, Oklahoma, spotted a car driving with expired tags.

During the June 26 traffic stop, the driver, Stephen Jennings, told officers up front that he had a gun in the console. That was only the beginning of the saga, as officers soon ran the plates and learned the car had been reported stolen. While searching the vehicle, officers went on to discover more and more things that probably shouldn't have been there, including an open bottle of Kentucky Deluxe whiskey, a rattlesnake in a terrarium, and a canister of radioactive powdered uranium.

"When that happens, of course, we call in a company that deals with that specifically, and it's taken safely into possession," Guthrie Police Sgt. Anthony Gibbs told KFOR on Thursday. "The uranium is the wild card in that situation." While Jennings has since been charged with everything from possession of a stolen vehicle to transporting an open container of liquor to operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license, he's so far in the clear on the uranium, because investigators are still trying to figure out what he wanted to use it for.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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