Police in Carson City, Nevada, arrested a 41-year-old man on child neglect and endangerment charges on June 30 after officials discovered that he was living with his wife and children in the museum he worked at — along with a stockpile of drugs and firearms.
The Carson City Sheriff’s Office made the discovery after receiving reports of Wilbert Calhoun’s 2 year old wandering outside the Children’s Museum of Northern Nevada and crossing East Ann Street unattended, KRNV-DT reported.
This was not the first time police were notified of an unsupervised child wandering near the facility.
While Calhoun told officers that he did not live in the museum, another of his children informed them that they lived inside the museum.
A Nevada couple was found secretly keeping a cache of weapons and living with their two kids at a northern Nevada children’s museum where they worked, authorities say. https://t.co/9WbbyyVNKU
— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 10, 2022
This fact was confirmed by officers and a museum board member who arrived at the scene after they walked through the facility and found signs of human habitation.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, officers found sleeping bags, food, clothes and mattresses in a section of the building closed off to visitors, the New York Post reported.
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In the storage room, police found an AK-47, three handguns, one AR-style pistol, ammunition including several magazines, knives, a baton, bong, used marijuana joint, stun gun, pepper spray and three silencers, KRNV-DT reported.
Shortly after the discovery, Calhoun was arrested on charges of child neglect and endangerment, three counts of owning a suppressor and two counts of owning a short barrel rifle.
Calhoun, who worked as a janitor at the museum, and his wife, who worked as a manager there, were both fired.
The museum remained closed as of Tuesday, according to its website.
“We are all shocked and saddened by the events that came to light on June 30 of this year,” the museum’s board said in a statement.
“We are working 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,” the board said.
Parents are surprised how the couple and their children managed to live unnoticed for so long in the museum.
“How could you not know?” Jennifer Trotter said, according to KOLO-TV.
Trotter had been sending her children to a summer camp at the museum for the past four years.
“Wonderful learning experiences for my children, and they always have lots of fun. I’ve encouraged other parents to sign up,” she said.
However, Trotter stopped sending her children there after the experience at the camp went downhill this year with classes starting late and bathrooms not being cleaned.
“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,” Trotter said.
“I felt sick,” Trotter said of the drugs and weapons found at the site. “That makes me really scared cause I have a 7-year-old boy who would’ve found those things very interesting.”
