UPDATE: Police tonight had to apply for a second search warrant after charging a Saddle Brook man who they said was stabbed by his wife earlier today with storing over 30 pounds of gunpowder in his house — more than legally allowed — as they continued hauling out guns and ammunition found inside after briefly evacuating surrounding homes.
“The warrant expired at 11 p.m.,” Police Chief Robert Kugler told CLIFFVIEW PILOT, “so we had to secure another one.”
This came after Eileen Lintner posted $75,000 bail and was released on aggravated assault charges — with the condition that she have no contact with her husband.
They charged Robert Lintner, meanwhile, with what Kugler called “creating a widespread risk of hazard” after taking him to police headquarters for processing shortly before 10 p.m.
This came more than 13 hours after Kugler’s officers first went to the Washington Street house at 8:45 a.m. to investigate a report of a domestic violence assault and found that Lintner had been stabbed just below his ear. They took Eileen Lintner into custody and obtained a search warrant.
Lintner, a known weapons collector, had two gun vaults in the house and an estimated 100 firearms, including handguns and long rifles, Kugler said.
Firefighters opened the vaults using the Jaws of Life and the weapons were seized, as is protocol in domestic violence cases, the chief said.
Cracking the 6-foot-tall, half-ton safes became necessary when Lintner refused to open the himself, Kugler said.
“It’s better than trying to carry them out,” he said.
Authorities will catalog the firearms to be sure all are legal, although nothing initially indicates any are, he said.
The black gunpowder, however, was in “an amount that appears to be in excess of what can be legally possessed,” Kugler told CLIFFVIEW PILOT earlier this evening.
“The excessive amount is deemed a public safety hazard not only for the home itself but for adjacent homes, as well,” the chief said. “This warrants its removal.”
Investigators found the powder and what Kugler called an “extensive” amount of ammunition after recovering the kitchen knife that they believe was used in the stabbing.
At that point they immediately halted their firearms search of the 1,400-square-foot home and summoned the Bergen County Police Department Bomb Squad.
The Bergen County Sheriff’s Bureau of Criminal Identification also collected evidence.
Meanwhile, adjacent homes were briefly evacuated.
(PHOTO, ABOVE: Courtesy SHERYLE ROBERT)
CLIFFVIEW PILOT PHOTOS