Posted on 06/19/2014 5:24:39 AM PDT by Iron Munro
TAMPA — Federal authorities sought doomsday prepper Martin Winters for two days in the woods of east Hillsborough County, attempting to arrest him on weapons charges.
On the third day, agents didn't need to look far at all.
Winters, soggy-shoed and hungry, waited with a daughter in a car outside the FBI field office on Gray Street in Tampa on Wednesday morning as his attorneys stepped up to a reception desk and arranged his surrender.
In trade, he got cheeseburgers, fries, Gatorade, dry shoes, praise from the FBI and a morning free of gunfire — all this from the agency that had spent months chronicling his antigovernment rhetoric and spying on his preparations for an imminent "last stand" with law enforcement.
"We're glad to report that Mr. Winters did the right thing," said FBI spokesman David Couvertier. "We were hoping for a peaceful resolution, and today we got that."
Winters invoked his right to remain silent and was moved to the federal courthouse in downtown Tampa for a first appearance before Magistrate Judge Thomas Wilson.
The defendant's three adult daughters sobbed when he was led into the room in restraints. He wore dark camouflage pants and a brown T-shirt, his face rimmed by a Zeus-like mane of churning black and white curls.
He stood when the judge entered the room. He called Wilson "Sir."
But Wilson called Winters a danger to the community and ordered him held without bail.
Federal authorities say Winters, 55, leads a group known as the River Otter Preppers that advocates survival preparations in advance of an end-times event foretold in the Bible's Book of Revelation.
He and five others were indicted by a grand jury nearly two weeks ago. He's accused of designing and building destructive devices without a permit, among other charges. He pleaded not guilty.
Defense attorney Ellis Faught Jr., who first represented Winters 35 years ago on a hunting violation, told the judge that an undercover FBI agent who spent months building a case against Winters had witnessed only talk.
But Wilson didn't accept that.
"This is not just talk," the judge said. "There were, in fact, destructive devices found and sold."
Winters talked about booby traps and stashes of weapons he had around his house at 3032 Williams Blvd., according to an FBI affidavit. He also discussed elaborate plans to kill government agents in the event that they raided his property.
The FBI had tried to arrest Winters on Monday as he was driving near Durant High School in east Hillsborough County, but he sped away.
Prosecutor Donald Hansen told the judge that agents exercised caution because Winters' two grandchildren were with him. Eventually, he let them out and then abandoned the vehicle and ran into the brush.
On Tuesday, the FBI announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to Winters' capture, calling him "armed and dangerous."
"It could have been a catastrophe had he not turned himself in," attorney Faught said.
The surrender process began with a phone call just after 7 a.m. Wednesday, according to Faught.
Winters' 26-year-old daughter, Tracey Winters, arranged to meet the attorney at his office. Once there, she said her father wanted to surrender, Faught said. They picked him up in the general area of his home, several miles southeast of Brandon.
"He got in the car immediately, and we didn't stop anywhere," Faught said. "We went on State Road 60 all the way in. I just wanted to make sure to get to the FBI office as fast as we could without incident."
Yeah there are a ton of sources online, but I’d imagine they all track who visits them. I have seen historical books with all of those types of things. Field manuals and such. I have no need for them of course.
It does demonstrate what their priorities are.
The *real* crime they are concerned with here is having a lack of faith in “the system”.
You got to keep in mind that in the eyes of the Government, which the FBI is their agent, that we , the law abiding Americans, Conservatives, legitimate gun owners, and Christians, not the “radical” muslims are the enemy.
what are these MOLOTOV COCKTAILS you speak of ? . .
Im still perfecting the gunpowder and light bulb trick at the front door...
“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted and you create a nation of law-breakers — and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system.”
Quote by: Ayn Rand
(1905-1982) Author
Source: “Atlas Shrugged”, Part II, Chapter 3
There have been a number of announcements that returning veterans , Christians, Conservatives, and white males are their enemies. When will we believe them?
That’s what he was trying to avoid, but there always can be “accidents” in jail that seem to happen from time to time with people who the Feds deem dangerous and can’t be compromised.
“...a ham sandwich.”
Damn; now ya did it.
Yeah, I know, I’m getting hungry for lunch, too.
Wasn’t Al-Arian the prof that even O’Reilly got all hot about years ago?
As has been said previously, Winters real crime was running his mouth.
The second rule is remember the first rule.
You’re overlooking the “building” part of the destructive devices. If he’d stopped at designing ‘em there wouldn’t be a case. Making them is one of the most serious transgressions the Feds recognize and punish.
Those wine bottles (especially those with the cone at the bottom) are great for making shaped charges. Not so much for molotov's though.
So what exactly did he do that was illegal?
“Anti-government rhetoric?” Whatever could be meant by that? I mean, the following could be considered anti-government rhetoric by these idiots:
Eliminating the income tax. Repealing the 16th or 17th Amendment. Term limits on Congress. Electing conservatives over RINOs or Democrats. Supporting RKBA. Ending the War on Drugs. Disbanding the TSA. And so on and so forth . . .
Yes.
“What’s wrong with having knowledge of how to build something like that?”
As the Declaration of Independence says, “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism...”
Such is their design. The closer they can get to a government monopoly on the use of force, the easier it will be—for them.
And they mask it all with prattle about “public safety.”
You want public safety? Make sure every citizen is armed, locked, and loaded. Then, abolish most of the alphabet agencies, and disarm the rest.
Without the Second Amendment, the Constitution is just a scrap of paper.
I have a proposal for the clarification of the Second Amendment.
*************************
A large number of armed men willing to protect it being necessary to the survival of the Constitution, neither the executive, the legislative, or the judicial branch of the United States government, nor any branch of any government of any of the several states, nor of any territory or district, shall pass any law, issue any edict, or take any action of any kind that has, whether as an intended or an unintended consequence, any restriction on the manufacture, import, sale, transfer, possession, or bearing on one’s person of any firearm of any description, or the ammunition, components, spare parts, or any other appurtenances thereto. Congress shall pass legislation mandating criminal penalties for violations of these provisions, and those penalties shall include but shall not be limited to loss of citizenship.
The term “firearm” means any weapon now in existence, and any technology that may render any of these obsolete, and any technology that in turn renders these new weapons obsolete, and thus forward in perpetuity.
Exactly! Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Ray Charles could have seen this coming.
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