AFFTON • The principal of Sappington Elementary School found a loaded handgun on the athletic field Wednesday that may have been tossed from a car that crashed through a fence at Grant's Farm about six hours earlier.

Principal Craig Hamby said Grant's Farm employees told him about the crash that occurred at the intersection of Pardee Road and Eddie and Park Road at about 2 a.m. Wednesday, and that police had found an empty gun holster inside the car.

The crash scene was near the back corner of the school, at 11011 Gravois Road.

St. Louis County police spokesman Benjamin Granda said a white car crashed through the chain link fence of Grant's Farm and came to a rest in the wooded area nearby. The driver ran off, but police later arrested an 18-year-old man at his home on suspicion of leaving the scene of an accident and possession of a controlled substance. He has not yet been charged.

Grant's Farm workers were repairing the fence Wednesday morning, and suggested Hamby walk the perimeter of the field.

"I thought I was being overly cautious when I went up there, not thinking I would find anything, but I did," Hamby said. "It was a pretty good toss from where the accident scene was.