Police find automatic weapons, grenades, tank at dead survivalist's home

Authorities have discovered a large cache of automatic weapons, explosives and even a tank at the New York home of a survivalist who may have killed himself on Tuesday night.

Carmel Police on Thursday were forced to evacuate a Mahopac neighborhood while investigating the death of 41-year-old Jonathan Orser, a former Marine Corps reservist.

Carmel Police Chief Michael Johnson told The Journal News that Orser had "over 100 firearms, rifles and shotguns, 15,000 to 20,000 rounds of ammunition, buckets of black (gun) powder, hand grenades" and other military ordinance at his home.

Johnson said that the blasting caps alone "could have caused the whole house to go up and maybe surrounding houses."

The 725th Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit based in Fort Drum, N.Y. was called in early Friday morning to take possession of the ordinance.

A decommissioned tank found in the back yard with it's turret plugged was thought to be legal.

Orser's wife discovered him dead on Tuesday night of a shotgun wound to his chest. The death was thought to be a suicide.

"I believe he was a survivalist and believed to be that he should be well-armed for the future and apparently he was," Chief Johnson told WINS.

Watch this video from The Journal News, broadcast June 28, 2013.

Watch this video from News 12, broadcast June 28, 2013.