And That May Be Next
RENO, Nev.—It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that a man on probation ought to be mindful of his possessions, lest the authorities take a sudden and impolite interest in them. Such wisdom, however, appears to have eluded one Garret Ferguson, whose domestic inventory included an item commonly not associated with quiet, law-abiding living—a cannon.
On February 6, the Nevada State Police’s Parole and Probation Division paid Ferguson a social call to see if he was, as the law puts it, behaving himself. The Reno Police Department and the FBI, always eager for a lively afternoon, joined in.
What they found was a veritable museum of mayhem: sixteen firearms, an assortment of knives fit to outfit a band of cutthroats, a generous supply of machetes, swords worthy of a medieval knight, and, of course, the pièce de résistance—a functioning cannon. Why a man on probation requires artillery is anyone’s guess, but one imagines he was preparing either for an exceedingly aggressive home invasion or an elaborate reenactment of the War of 1812.
Ferguson was promptly arrested and deposited in the Washoe County Jail on contempt of court and violating his probation, proving that while a man may arm himself to the teeth, he cannot outgun the long arm of the law.
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