Weapons Cache Confiscated

By Brenda Barhottie brendabarhottie@sanduskyregurgitator.com

What began as a typical suburban disturbance call ended in a hair rasing post-9/11 display of lightning quick police response time.

"I've just discovered a large weapons cache....call the chief..."

Those were the words that Perkins Police Dispatcher Kim Johnson heard over the radio late Friday night that changed her life forever.

"The mood of the entire evening changed," Johnson recalls. "It was like one minute you're dealing with cats stuck in trees and the next minute you've got a major problem with a suspect stockpiling weapons.

At approximately 9:20 pm, an unidentified Perkins resident reported that her cat was stuck in her neighbor's tree. Upon arriving at the Meadowlawn residence, several officers cleared the area with M-4 carbine rifles and gave permission to the Hostage negotiator to approach the scene for cat extraction operations.

"We've been cross-training our officers for quite some time now," says Police Chief Tim McClung. "Our hostage negotiator has a background with pets, so he was chosen from a long list of veteran officers to specialize in cat and dog extractions."

But this night of cat rescue was like no other.

"Once our officers gained access to the property, they discovered that the resident had a large display of pistols, shotguns and fully automatic assault rifles," says McClung. "It was like something you'd see on CSI, but thankfully my officers handled themselves professionally and they proved that all the hard work and training paid off."


The confiscated weapons. "The orange tips are used by the assailant to shock and intimidate the victim," McClung says. (Photograph courtesy Perkins Police Department)

McClung had recently spent several thousand dollars on counterterrorism training in hopes that the department would be ready for this type of situation. McClung was right on the money.

Although the offender's identity has not been released, he is being held on weapons charges and inducing panic.