No one should be driving around Manhattan with four loaded handguns in their car. So it was a good thing when NYPD officers stopped Daniel Figueroa in Harlem Sunday and arrested him for carrying three heaters on his person and another elsewhere in the vehicle, right? Well, it’s complicated.

This week, the 23rd Precinct’s Twitter account tweeted the above photo with the caption “Carstop yesterday leads to recovery of 4 Guns 4 Gravity knives & 2 males arrested Great job!” A cause for celebration. Except that, according reporting by DNAinfo, Figuerosa was legally permitted to carry all of the guns, and the cops were celebrating an arrest that would never be charged.

Sure enough, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office dropped all of the weapons possession charges against him, leaving only failure to carry a firearm license, driving a suspended license, and talking on a cell phone while driving. From the charges, it sounds like Figueroa wasn’t carrying his permits with him, so it’s understandable that the cops would nab him. And who can blame them for wanting to get guns off the street? Unfortunately for them, a bad arrest is still a bad arrest.

Image via NYPD32Pct/Twitter. Contact the author at andy@gawker.com.