A Vero Beach man explained to an Indian River County Sheriff's deputy that the pants he was wearing where the cop found crack cocaine and marijuana were not his but were, in fact, stolen pants.

"As I began to search his pockets, he stated quickly that the pants he was wearing were not his," an arrest affidavit states. "He claimed he stole them from a church."

Johnny Mccoy, 56, was riding a bike on 44th Street near 28th Avenue in Vero Beach when the officer pulled him over for not having the required safety lights on the bicycle.

The officer asked Mccoy if he had any illegal drugs on him. He said he did not.

The deputy then asked for consent to search him.

Mccoy handed the officer a pack of cigarettes that allegedly had a half-smoked joint inside.

The cop also found a bag of crack cocaine.

Seeing how the jig was possibly up, Mccoy told the deputy that the pants he was wearing did not belong to him. And seeing how being hauled in for petty theft rather than, say, drug possession might be the way to go, he told the officer he stole the pants. From a church.

According to the affidavit, Mccoy was then arrested on drug charges including possession of cocaine and possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana.

He was not, however, charged with pants theft.

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