Carson City, NV
Family found hoarding guns and living in children’s museum
By Graig Graziosi

A family was recently discovered living inside a children’s museum in Nevada and stashing away weapons.

According to local broadcaster KOLO, on 30 June, police in Carson City received a call that a two-year-old was wandering around unsupervised near the Children's Museum of Northern Nevada. It apparently wasn't the first time a report had been made about unattended children near the museum.

"Officers at the scene were able to evaluate that the call was associated with a previously known call and that it originated from the Children's Museum...The child was actually found by a business. He had gotten out, crossed a very busy...main artery," Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said during a press briefing.

A previous caller, a woman named Jennifer Trotter, whose four-year-old daughter attended the camp, had also reported that the individual running the camp was letting the children play outside without supervision.

"My daughter told me that the lady running the camp, Amber, had let my daughter and her daughter go play outside on the front steps of the museum, unattended by an adult," she said.

According to Carson Now, deputies investigating the reports of wandering children eventually found the two-year-old's father, Wilbert Calhoun, as well as Mr Calhoun's other children.

The children told the deputies that they were actually living inside of the museum. Mr Calhoun initially disputed his child's claims. However, police were later escorted through the museum by one of its board members, during which time they witnessed several indicators that someone was actually living in the museum.

According to the deputies, they found blankets, mattresses, food, dishes and other personal belongings that were not part of any of the museum's exhibits.

Both Mr Calhoun and his wife worked for the museum — he a janitor, and his wife a manager — and at some point reportedly moved themselves into the building along with their five children.

The couple have been fired from their jobs at the museum.

Shortly after deputies discovered that the family was living in the museum, Mr Calhoun was taken into custody for child neglect. While they were driving him back to the sheriff's headquarters, they learned that a museum board member had discovered two firearms inside a storage room.

A further search revealed that "dozens" of magazines were also allegedly stashed alongside the guns.

In total, one pistol, one AK-47-style rifle, several knives, three suppressors, a taser, a baton and marijuana paraphernalia were found inside the storage area. The deputies said the storage area was unlocked, and claimed that any passing child could have accessed any of the weapons.

Once the weapons were discovered, Mr Calhoun was also hit with a felony weapons charge.

The Children's Museum of Northern Nevada shared a statement with Newsweek addressing the incident.

"To all of the members and visitors to the Children's Museum of Northern Nevada, we would like to offer our most sincere apologies for the incident that came to light on June 30th. We are shocked and saddened that this happened on our watch, and we are working hard to make sure that nothing like this will ever happen again," it said. "We are looking into the best path to reopen in a way that not only assures the safety of all of our visitors, but that we as a community can be proud of as well."