Police: Randolph man was driving around East Boston with a gun, 1,000 rounds and an ominious looking device

Boston Police report officers monitoring a possible drug transaction wound up arresting a Randolph man on weapons charges instead.

Police say Michael Stroll, 22, came under the watchful eyes of drug officers around 8:15 p.m. Monday as part of a patrol at the Shore Plaza project based on complaints from residents about drug dealing:

While monitoring the transaction, officers observed one of the individuals react in a startled, almost enthusiastic manner after inspecting the contents of the trunk. Specifically, officers observed the individual, while nodding emphatically, stagger back and throw his hands in the air in show of disbelief. On the heels of the reaction, officers observed both parties shake hands and then re-enter the motor vehicle.

The officers then followed Stroll and when he failed to signal for a turn, they stopped his car, then ordered him out when he admitted he had no license:

Upon looking through the trunk area of the vehicle, officers observed two large brown ammunition boxes which contained close to a thousand loose rounds of various types of ammunition. In addition to the above, officers observed and recovered a black firearm and a grenade launcher.

He was arrested on a variety of weapons charges.

Photo of what the police say was the grenade launcher. But as Brian D'Amico discovered, if you search the Web for the name and serial number on the side (which you can easily read on the larger version of the photo), you discover it's a flare gun, available online and approved by the Coast Guard, not a weapon for taking out tanks:

Photos of the ammo as well.

Innocent, etc.