Police arrest gang member after finding his gun in an unlikely place

A known Merced gang member was jailed in Madera County on Tuesday after running from Chowchilla police and hiding his gun in a toilet.

Chowchilla officers came across a white, two-door Honda reported stolen over the weekend and followed it to Defender Street, where the driver abandoned the car, police said in a news release.

Officers noticed a man running in the alleyway, so they set up a perimeter and swept the backyards in the area. A broken fence board led them to an out house in one of the yards. They knocked on the door, and 34-year-old Saul Granados opened the door, sweating and out of breath after running from police, officers said.

When officers searched the outdoor bathroom, they found a loaded handgun reported stolen from Las Vegas in the tank of the toilet.

Granados, who was on probation in Madera County for weapons offenses, was booked into Madera County jail on two felony warrants, weapons violations and possession of a stolen vehicle, police said. He remained in jail on Wednesday without bail.

This story was originally published August 9, 2017 at 1:57 PM with the headline "Police arrest gang member after finding his gun in an unlikely place."