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Police say a Delaware County man was making ghost guns and meth in his apartment

Police responded to a smoke detector alarm and found evidence that Jeffrey Neithammer had been making guns in his apartment, according to a criminal complaint.

The Delaware County Courthouse in Media.
The Delaware County Courthouse in Media.Read moreCHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer

Police arrested a Media man on Sunday after responding to a smoke detector alarm in his apartment — and finding evidence that the man had been making guns there, according to a criminal complaint.

Jeffrey Neithammer, 36, is facing a number of gun and drug charges, including discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, according to the complaint.

Firefighters first arrived at a restaurant on State Street in Media on Sunday morning after a smoke alarm went off, but weren’t able to locate the source of the alarm, according to the complaint, until they cleared two apartments in the building but received no answer at the door of a third apartment. The building’s landlord was able to open the door, and found Neithammer on the floor in the living room, according to the complaint.

Firefighters then called police, fearing Neithammer was dead — and also concerned by items in the apartment that they believed could be part of a meth cooking operation, Delaware County prosecutors said in a news release.

But Neithammer was awake by the time police arrived and searched his apartment, according to the complaint. They found a number of large bottles in the bathroom that police suspected were being used to manufacture drugs. They also found two “ghost guns” — guns without serial numbers that are typically homemade — and a pair of silencers, two pistols, and a vial containing a substance that tested positive on the scene for methamphetamine, according to the criminal complaint.

Police also found handgun magazines and silencers that had been 3D printed, as well as a 3D printer itself, lathes, drill presses, and other items used to make guns.

Officers found bullet holes in the doors and ceilings of the apartment, with spent bullet casings throughout, prosecutors said.

Neithammer was held at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in lieu of 10% of $200,000 bail, prosecutors said.