A West Wyomissing man faces felony charges after Spring Township police said they found a stolen firearm when they stopped his SUV near his home last month for having a suspended registration.
Kenneth A. Vento Morales, 22, of the 2000 block of Girard Avenue was charged with receiving stolen property and carrying a firearm without a license.
He was free on $20,000 bail to await a hearing following arraignment Saturday night before District Judge Priscilla Campos in Reading Central Court.
According to court records:
About 10:30 p.m. on Sept. 11, Officer Gregory Shober, while traveling east on Reading Boulevard in a patrol vehicle, pulled behind an SUV registered to Vento Morales that was stopped at a red light at the intersection with West Wyomissing Boulevard.
He ran the license plate number for the SUV through a PennDOT database and learned it was suspended for unpaid traffic fines. There was also an insurance cancellation.
As the light turned green, the officer activated his emergency lights, and the SUV pulled over on Reading Boulevard.
Vento Morales, whose driver’s license was also suspended, was in the front passenger seat. The driver, identified as Edwin Gutierrez, had a suspended New York driver’s license and was wanted by the Berks County Sheriff’s Office on a bench warrant. Further details of the warrant were unavailable.
He and Vento Morales, who had eight open scofflaw warrants, were taken into custody.
Police summoned a towing contractor for the uninsured vehicle. Before authorizing it to be towed, they conducted an inventory search per department policy.
On the floor next to the front passenger seat — where Vento Morales’ feet had been — was a cross-body bag.
Shober found a loaded 9 mm pistol with an extended magazine in the bag. There were 11 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber.
A check through a law enforcement database revealed the gun had been reported stolen on July 22 to Reading police. The owner said it was taken from his residence on Maple Street.
The gun was confiscated and sent to the Berks County Forensic Services Unit for DNA analysis. Police also obtained a search warrant to collect a DNA sample from Vento Morales.
The results of the comparative analysis are pending.