What exactly was this guy's crime? Obviously he is a complete idiot for shooting in his house (not trying at all to defend him), but the article makes it sound like his crime was owning a lot of firearms! Seems to me that there might have been some NFA guns in there he wasn't licensed to have....NY people, what else what he doing wrong by having a lot of guns?
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_322174452.html
EDIT: A little Google helped me find another article that explained the charges/offenses a little better. I can't believe that bias of the police, though!
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051119/NEWS02/511190322/1018
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_322174452.html
Westchester Cops Lock Up Gun Nut
Man Arrested Had Massive Arsenal
(CBS) MOUNT PLEASANT A Westchester County man faces felony charges after police seized his vast collection of firearms, including several guns disguised as everyday objects.
"This appears to be a Zippo lighter, but as you can see, it's a gun," said Mount Pleasant police chief Louis Alagno, as he displayed the weapon at a news conference Friday.
The lighter was so cleverly done, police accidentally fired it while handling the gun earlier this week.
"It was loaded with a blank, thank God," Alagno said. "We thought it was a gun, but we didn't know it was a gun, and it discharged."
Police seized more than 120 guns, 10,000 rounds of Teflon-coated "cop killer bullets," and hundreds of switchblade knives from 51-year-old Robert E. Klein, who owns and operates a car wash in Hawthorne.
The case began when Klein moved out of 15 W. Oxford Street in Mount Pleasant. His landlord, retired NYPD officer Michael Bruno, realized Klein had turned an upstairs closet into a shooting gallery.
"He was almost a recluse in the house, he didn't come out of the house much," Bruno said.
Police investigated and realized Bruno had fired rounds through the closet wall. Several bullets struck a neighboring house, right outside a bedroom where a baby sleeps.
"For whatever reason he did not perceive the danger he posed to his neighbors," Alagno said.
Bruno was charged with reckless endangerment and ordered to surrender his weapons. Police waited several weeks before obtaining a search warrant, then seized weapons from Klein's new home in Croton-on-Hudson, and from a self-storage unit in Elmsford.
The weapons included dozens of handguns and rifles. Police say Klein didn't have permits for any of the firearms.
The exotic guns included a derringer pistol hidden in a belt buckle and a gun integrated into the six-inch blade of a Bowie knife.
Police say one weapon, a silver Gatling gun, was modeled on a prop from the movie "The Terminator." The gun could fire 3,000 rounds per minute, and was valued at more than $3,000.
Chief Alagno estimated the value of the entire collection at more than $100,000.
Mount Pleasant police have asked the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to investigate the source of the guns collected by Klein
EDIT: A little Google helped me find another article that explained the charges/offenses a little better. I can't believe that bias of the police, though!
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051119/NEWS02/511190322/1018
Cops seize exotic weapons, charge Cortlandt man
By RICHARD LIEBSON
[email protected]
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: November 19, 2005)
MOUNT PLEASANT — Police yesterday displayed an arsenal of more than 120 exotic weapons and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition they said they had seized while investigating reports that a man had shot up the inside of his former home in Valhalla.
"This was a very unusual occurrence here," said Police Chief Louis Alagno. "There's no legitimate reason I can think of for someone to have these types of weapons or this much ammunition."
The case resulted in the arrest of Robert E. Klein, 51, who owns a carwash in Hawthorne, and the discovery of weapons caches in Klein's new home in Cortlandt and at a self-storage warehouse in Greenburgh, police said.
Included in the arsenal, which police said was worth more than $100,000, were a variety of knives, antique handguns, high-powered automatic rifles, a gun hidden in a belt buckle, another that looked like a lighter and one that looked like a pocket watch. There was also a cane that hid a sword and a BB gun that police said was a prototype for the distinctive silver weapon used by Arnold Schwarzenegger in "The Terminator" movie. Also found were boxes and cartons of ammunition, including 10,000 rounds of Teflon-coated bullets known as "cop killers," which are designed to pierce bulletproof vests.
"I'm not opposed to shooting sports, but these weapons are not designed for shooting sports," Alagno said. "These weapons are anti-personnel weapons."
Alagno said Klein had no permits for any of the weapons. Although he is accused of shooting up his former home at 15 W. Oxford St. in Valhalla, police said there was no evidence that Klein was anything more than "an obviously reckless" collector who fired the guns into his bedroom closet for target practice. Some of the bullets went through the walls into the walls of neighbors' homes, including some that struck near the bedroom window of a neighbor's infant.
"The potential danger to the public is incalculable," Alagno said, adding that police have never received reports of shots fired in the neighborhood.
Michael Bruno, Klein's former landlord, said his tenant had told him he collected guns.
"But I didn't know he had these kinds of weapons," he said.
Bruno, a former New York City police officer, said Klein and his wife rented the comfortable two-story home in a quiet Valhalla neighborhood for five years, before moving out Sept. 15 after buying a house in Cortlandt. He described Klein as "a nice guy, but depressed and reclusive."
"He never left the house," Bruno said. "I know he took a lot of pain medications and always seemed to be down and depressed."
Bruno said he checked on the house twice a month and noticed firearm damage in September.
"I told him to pay for the damage, get rid of the guns and get some help, but he just denied everything, so I ended up reporting him to the police," Bruno said.
After an investigation, Mount Pleasant police arrested Klein on Nov. 3, and charged him with second-degree criminal mischief, a felony; and second-degree reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor. He was released on $1,000 bail and was ordered to stay away from his former neighbors and to surrender his firearms. When he failed to turn in any weapons, police obtained a search warrant for Klein's 31 Sassi Drive home in Cortlandt and, on Monday, found a stash of 68 illegal guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
Klein was arrested again and was charged with second-degree criminal contempt, a misdemeanor. Alagno said state police were notified, and they got a warrant charging Klein with felony possession of weapons.
Mount Pleasant Town Justice Robert Ponzini ordered Klein held without bail at the Westchester County jail. After further investigation with cooperation from Klein and his lawyer, police on Wednesday seized 60 more firearms, ammunition and other weapons from a self-storage warehouse on Saw Mill River Road in Greenburgh.
Klein is scheduled to return to Mount Pleasant Town Court on Dec. 8. His attorney, Louis Ecker, was on vacation and could not be reached for comment.
