Raid in Glassboro turns up guns

Concluding nearly two days searching the Glassboro home of a suspected arms dealer, police said yesterday that they found guns stashed in every room and throughout the backyard, eventually pulling out more than 50 firearms and a "large amount" of ammunition.

Noontime Thursday, Horace Dixon Jr., 50, was arrested in the parking lot of a local bowling alley as he tried to sell undercover state police a 37mm projectile launcher, a device intended for flares that can be retooled to shoot shells or gas, firearms officials said.

Dixon tried to flee in his red 1991 Chevrolet Blazer but rammed an unmarked police car, said Sgt. Stephen Jones, a state police spokesman. No troopers were injured. Employees at Glassboro Bowl & Recreation Center on Delsea Drive said the alley was just opening for the day when police rushed in and told them to evacuate.

The sting was coordinated by a Joint Firearms Task Force involving New Jersey state police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The task force was formed this year to track illegal firearms sellers by tracing guns to their original sources.

Dixon was charged with six counts of illegal sale of firearms, as well as assault-weapon possession, Jones said. He likely will face further charges.

After Dixon's arrest, troopers, weapons agents and bomb squads sifted through his home on Franklin Road, continuing into yesterday. Authorities detonated explosive devices found in the house in a nearby field.

Investigators wore filtered masks to protect them from odors in the house, Jones said. Animal-control officers took custody of four dogs.

Neighbors said Dixon's property was once home to about eight rotting cars and piles of junk.

Thursday's sting was not the first time police had bought weapons from Dixon, Jones said. In early July, Glassboro police learned of two firearms for sale and alerted the task force. On July 6, Dixon sold an undercover trooper an Israeli Military Industries .223-caliber assault rifle with high-capacity magazines and a Marlin "Bull Pup" 9mm assault rifle.

On July 17, the same detective purchased two more assault weapons, and on Aug. 7, Dixon sold an assault rifle and a handgun.

In January, state police found another South Jersey home with a large cache of firearms. Brian Hinkle, then 59, was arrested on charges of aggravated assault after he pulled a gun when officers arrived at his Franklin Township house to investigate a burglary in the area.

Over the following three days, police found 259 firearms and nearly a half-million rounds of ammunition in Hinkle's home.

Dixon had worked in the automotive services division at AAA Mid-Atlantic on Brewster Avenue in Philadelphia since July 2007 but had been on paid leave for two or three months, company spokesman David Weinstein said. He would not say why.

Dixon grew up in the house police raided Thursday and continued living there after his mother died in the mid-1990s.

Ken Burns, 64, was raised and still resides across the street, which is bounded by fields of peaches and soybeans.

"He'd just stay to himself . . . like a hermit," Burns said.

Fallon Rounds, 26, said she moved into the neighborhood six months ago with her boyfriend, a student at nearby Rowan University.

"I just figured he was the crazy old guy on the street," she said. "I think every street has one."

Janet Cresse, 58, grew up three houses down from Dixon. She moved - to the end of the street. She said Dixon once owned an antiques store along Route 322 between Glassboro and Williamstown, where his shelves included old toys and dishware.

"He was harmless," Cresse said. "He'd never hurt a fly."

Dixon spoke on occasion of making trips to Valley Forge to sell his collection of guns, she said.

Along with assault rifles, semiautomatic handguns, police seized a World War I-era machine gun from Dixon's home.

Around Christmastime, neighbors said, he would come around to give each of them a gift. Cresse remembered a conversation within the last year with Dixon about his finances.

"I told him: 'If you sold your guns you could be a millionaire.' He said, 'I know.' "