Neighbors of a Wilton Manors man who'd recently died were shocked to find a massive cache of weapons in his apartment when they went to check on his dog.
The incident unfolded Wednesday at the building in the area of Northeast 29th Drive and 6th Avenue and required a response from Fort Lauderdale Police's Bomb Squad and military explosives specialists.
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Neighbors said the man, who they knew as Mike and was in his 70s, died unexpectedly Tuesday as he was moving out and placing items in storage.
On Wednesday, his next door neighbor Gabrielle, who didn't want to give her last name, went to the man's apartment to check on his dog and was stunned by what she found.
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"That’s when I saw the grenades, the mines, all of this I’m looking at. Bullets all over the floor," she said Thursday. "I’m still shaken, I had two panic attacks yesterday because of this. It’s really mind-blowing to know that all of this was in his house."
Wilton Manors Police confirmed they found numerous firearms, ammunitions and alleged explosives in the apartment.
Gabrielle said she and other residents were evacuated while police took inventory of the weapons.
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While police were there, another neighbor, Alex Ortiz realized he'd ended up with a case that Mike left behind.
Ortiz said he opened the case and got scared, though he wouldn't say exactly what he saw.
"I’ve never seen anything like that in my 45 years on earth, it was a little unnerving, my dad was perplexed about seeing what he saw, it was an eye-opener," Ortiz said.
Ortiz turned the case over to police.
“It was very scary, it was very scary because there was enough stuff in that house to blow everybody up over here," Gabrielle said.
