Cops: Homeless man finds stolen armory weapons in Bronx park
James W. Morales, 34, seen in a mug shot from an earlier arrest, faces extradition to Massachusetts to face charges that he was involved in the theft of weapons from a U.S. Army facility in Worcester. He was arrested in Westbury near the United Artists Westbury Stadium 12 theater complex late Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. Credit: Somerville PD
Several weapons stolen from a Massachusetts armory have been recovered after a homeless man found them in a Bronx park Friday morning, police said.
The NYPD said the 51-year-old homeless man was collecting cans at Mullaly Park, across from Yankee Stadium, when he found a black garbage bag with three guns inside about 9 a.m. Friday. He turned the guns over to police.
Police said the guns were stolen Nov. 14 from the vault of the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.
The U.S. attorney's office in Massachusetts has charged James Walter Morales, 34, with robbing the armory. Morales, who was free on bail while facing child rape charges, was arrested Wednesday outside a United Artists movie theater in Westbury.
FBI agents said Morales stole six M4 rifles and 10 Sig Sauer M11 9-MM pistols from the Army reserve armory vault in Worcester. Authorities have not accounted for the other 13 weapons.
FBI officials said Morales entered the vault by breaking a kitchen window near a drill room and using a power saw and pry bar to cut a hole through the ceiling of the weapons vault and "several layers of metal and wood."
A grainy surveillance video showed a man leaving the armory with duffel bags. Police said they also took a blood sample left at the armory that was traced to Morales.
A federal judge in Central Islip ordered Morales on Friday to be transferred to Massachusetts to face charges there.
John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.
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