A New Jersey hospital marketing director was arrested this week after a bomb threat at the facility led police to discover a cache of weapons and ammunition stashed in an unlocked office closet.
Reuven Alonalayoff, who worked at Hudson Regional Hospital, was taken into custody Sunday at Newark Liberty International Airport with assistance from Department of Homeland Security Investigations.
Alonalayoff, 46, of Elmwood Park, was charged with possession of an assault firearm and two counts of possession of a high-capacity magazine.
Lawyer information for him was not immediately available.
The hospital got a phone call on July 18 that a bomb was in the facility, Secaucus police said in a news release.
Officers, along with bomb detection dogs, swept the hospital. A dog flagged the unlocked closet, officials said.
“Upon entering the closet, police discovered a large cache of rifles, shotguns and handguns, along with assorted ammunition for the firearms,” police said.
In total, authorities found 11 handguns of various calibers, 27 rifles or shotguns and a high-capacity magazine with 14 rounds, authorities said. They also found a Kriss Vector .45-caliber semiautomatic rifle with a high-capacity magazine and determined that it was an assault rifle, police said.
Authorities learned the bomb threat was a hoax and investigated the arsenal of weapons.
It’s not clear how the weapons got into the hospital, how long they were stored there or why they were in the office closet. NBC News has asked officials for comment about those details, as well as Alonalayoff's status with the hospital.
“The unsecured storage of a large cache of weaponry, especially in this location, certainly creates a risk to public safety,” Police Chief Dennis Miller said. “I commend the efforts and professionalism of all the police personnel involved in this investigation and am thankful this situation was resolved without anyone being harmed.”
