Jimmy Dewayne Whipple made a series of unfortunate mistakes this past Tuesday. First, he called the local police department to report that his gun had been stolen. That's a reasonable thing for most people to do but less of a great idea when you're a felon who is not allowed to own a gun.
Whipple might have survived that masterstroke of poor planning if he hadn't forgotten to put away his joints, his grinder, his pipe, his container of weed, and his stash of illegal medications before inviting police officers into his home.
Whipple's self-inflicted misery began Tuesday when he apparently noticed someone had lifted his gun. The 47-year-old called Charlotte County Sheriff's deputies to his home in Port Charlotte, a town just north of Fort Myers.
The cops quickly learned that Whipple was a felon barred from gun ownership and arrested him on new felony charges.
But then they glanced around his home and noted the drug paraphernalia: a pipe, a grinder, a green container full of weed, four partially smoked joints, and a medicine bottle full of illicit pills.
Now -- in addition to being out what was probably a pretty sweet gun -- Whipple faces new charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana, and possession of drugs without a prescription.
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