Exclusive: Weapons cache found in Brooklyn woman's apartment

ByEyewitness News WABC logo
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Huge cache of weapons found inside Brooklyn home
Josh Einiger reports from Bath Beach.

BATH BEACH, Brooklyn (WABC) -- A woman is facing felony charges, accused of stockpiling weapons in Brooklyn.

In the pictures, obtained exclusively by Eyewitness News, you can see enough hardware to start a small war.

There were dozens of weapons, including a grenade launcher along with live grenades, assault weapons, high capacity magazines, and 10,000 rounds of ammunition.

All in this unassuming brownstone on a quiet block of Bath Beach where neighbors saw the police activity Wednesday morning, but never imagined this.

"Someone said, 'Lock your windows, there's been a robbery!'" a neighbor said.

This was no robbery, but an investigation that started with a discovery by Homeland Security of a shipment fake NYPD IDs.

The police department Impersonation Division linked those IDs to a man named James Lee who recently died.

He lived in an apartment at this address. Police believe he is the one who amassed these weapons, and his wife, 53-year-old Helen Chin, was allegedly planning to sell them to get rid of them.

The complete list of recovered items includes:

- 6 AR-15 assault rifles

- 5 7.62 caliber rifles

- 2 380's caliber rifles

- 3 12 gauge shotguns

- 1 1.06 caliber rifle

- 2 25 caliber hand guns

- 3 22 caliber handguns

- 1 380 caliber handgun

- 2 flair guns

- 1 grenade launcher

- 100 High capacity magazines

- 2 drum magazines

- Approximately 10,000 rounds of ammunition