Petaluma police confiscate gun, pot from motel guest

A Motel 6 guest who left an unregistered firearm and a large amount of marijuana in a backpack in his room returned to find his items missing and was soon arrested by Petaluma police, according to a Nixel alert from the Petaluma police.

The suspect, Valentin J. Rodriguez, 18, of Petaluma was charged with possession of a firearm without a serial number, possession of an assault weapon, possession of a large-capacity magazine and possession of armor-piercing bullets. He was booked into the Sonoma County Jail, according to the police alert.

The items were discovered when the Petaluma motel’s cleaning staff entered the room where the guest was supposed to have checked out. They called police, who arrived and confiscated the items. Later, Rodriguez returned and found his gun and backpack missing and was upset, the staff told police. Officers returned to the motel and took him into custody.

The gun was a Polymer 80 handgun, a semiautomatic pistol assembled at home from a kit, sometimes called a ‘ghost gun’ when not properly registered. It contained a 29-round high-capacity magazine loaded with 40-caliber armor-piercing bullets. The backpack contained 267 grams of marijuana, according to the alert.

California law states that a semiautomatic pistol can be considered an assault weapon if it has a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds, can accept a detachable magazine somewhere other than its pistol grip, or has a threaded barrel, second handgrip or an external shroud.

You can reach Staff Writer Kathleen Coates at kathleen.coates@pressdemocrat.comor 707-521-5209.