Police find small safe in man's pants

A Cape Girardeau man charged with beating a woman with a wallpaper roll in early March is now in Cape Girardeau County jail on second-degree drug-trafficking charges after officers found a small safe in his pants.

Gary Reno, 59, is being held on $70,000 in cash-only bonds in relation to the trio of charges.

On April 1, deputies with the Cape Girardeau Sheriff’s Office were serving Reno a warrant on the domestic assault and armed criminal action charges. According to a probable-cause statement issued by an officer’s name that is redacted, an officer “located a small black safe tucked in the front of Reno’s pants.” Reno told the officer the safe contained meth. The safe contained five bags of drugs containing 76 grams.

On March 6, an officer responded to a report of domestic abuse, in which they talked to a victim who said she was “terrified” of Reno and could not utter a coherent sentence when police arrived because she was so upset, according to the probable-cause statement. After calming down, the victim told police Reno had shown increasingly violent behavior toward her, culminating with the beating involving a wallpaper roll that police described as 27 inches long, 1.5 inches in diameter and so “extremely rigid” that the officer could not bend it. Officers observed bruising of her legs.