Man found living in children’s museum with a stockpile of weapons, Nevada officials say

A Nevada man was arrested after he was found living inside a children’s museum with a stockpile of weapons, authorities said.

The 41-year-old man was arrested on five felony weapons charges and one gross misdemeanor of child neglect and danger, according to an arrest report from the Carson City Sheriff’s Department.

Sheriff Ken Furlong told KOLO 8 that the department first discovered the man after receiving a call about an unattended toddler outside the children’s museum on June 30. He said the child was found by staff at another business, and that the boy had “gotten out, crossed a very busy main artery,” the outlet reported.

A responding deputy soon learned that the child’s father was someone known to the department and located him nearby, according to the arrest report. They also found the boy’s older sister, who told the investigators than they had been living in the museum.

The man initially denied that he was living inside the museum, the report said. However, when deputies searched the building, they saw clothes, food, dishes, sleeping bags, blankets and mattresses, the report said.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Furlong told KOLO 8.

After placing the man under arrest on suspicion of child neglect and endangerment, investigators found he had also been stockpiling weapons inside the museum. In addition to the ammunition, baton, knives, taser and other weapons, they found marijuana and a bong inside a storage room, according to the arrest report.

The storage room was in an area that could have easily been accessed by children, the report said. When deputies searched it, they found several guns, including an AR-style pistol and an AK-47.

According to the arrest report, it was the second time that the sheriff’s office had responded to an incident involving the man and his children. At that time, deputies said the man was “highly agitated” and “is known to have firearms.”

The museum itself had been the recent subject of complaints from parents, who said that events were starting more than an hour late, bathrooms weren’t being cleaned, and children were meditating with crystals instead of “learning about the ocean,” KOLO8 reported.

One parent told Carson Now that one morning, when she came to drop her children off at the museum for summer camp, there were no adults around. Later that afternoon, when she picked up her children, she found that they were allowed to play outside on the museum’s front steps — near the busy street — without adult supervision, the outlet reported.

The man and his wife both worked at the museum, the man as a janitor, but both were fired after the incident, Carson Now reported. Members of the museum’s board said there were no previous behavioral complaints about either of them.

“We want the community to know that we take this very, very seriously,” Board Member Jeff Erickson told the outlet.

The man is being held on a bail of $42,500, Carson Now reported.

This story was originally published July 8, 2022 at 1:46 PM with the headline "Man found living in children’s museum with a stockpile of weapons, Nevada officials say."