Man with Nazi memorabilia, dozens of guns, arrested in Huntington Beach

HUNTINGTON BEACH — A 51-year-old man was in custody Wednesday morning after police discovered an arsenal of weapons and Nazi memorabilia in his Huntington Beach home.

Mitchell Todd was taken into custody Tuesday after Laguna Beach police served a search warrant at his home on the 15000 block of Cambay Lane and recovered more than 50 weapons, which included assault and sniper rifles, according to the Laguna Beach Police Department.

Laguna Beach police had been investigating Todd since earlier this month after he allegedly threatened a man with whom he had been having a business dispute, Fox11 reported. Todd owns an Orange County dove-releasing business and was in a dispute over payment with a man who hired Todd to release doves at his son’s funeral.

“The suspect had made a verbal threat stating words to the effect of maybe you need to go be with your son,” LBPD Sgt. Jim Cota told Fox11. “You could tell the voicemails and text messages became more and more threatening, and then the tip of the iceberg was hearing the releasing of a handgun slide, so at that point we knew we were dealing with somebody who’s got the potential of extreme violence.”

Cota told Fox11 detectives were trying to “figure out why one person would have in excess of 50 guns. At least in my career, it stands up there with the top five in terms of firepower. This is definitely an amount of weaponry that is not for personal use.”

Only 12 of the weapons were registered to Todd, Cota said.

A confederate flag and Nazi memorabilia was also found in the home, and Cota said detectives would investigate if there were possible ties to hate groups.