In court for traffic tickets, survivalist's gear lands him in jail

HE SAYS that he walks the road less traveled, preparing to survive the end times with firearms and purified water, but Fernando Antonio Salguero wasn't quite prepared to find himself where he was on Wednesday.

Salguero, a Bridgeport, Pa., resident who founded the group "Survive and Thrive," was attending Municipal Court in Somerdale, Camden County, on Tuesday for motor-vehicle violations when police noticed that his 2005 Ford Crown Victoria was parked illegally.

Police also learned that Salguero had been arrested last month in Hopewell Township, near Trenton, for unlawful possession of a weapon, so they asked if they could search his car, said Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

Salguero, who ran the Ron Paul warming tent at Occupy Philly, said no, and a police K-9 unit later uncovered the "presence or previous presence of explosive materials in the vehicle," according to a news release from Somerdale police.

When police obtained a search warrant, Laughlin said, they discovered "rocket-propelled flares, an extendable baton, and tear gas" inside Salguero's car. He was charged with weapons possession and possession of destructive devices and taken to the Camden County Jail on $32,500 bail.

Mike Salvi, a "libertarianish" activist and longtime friend, said that Salguero had pepper spray and road flares in his car, not weapons.

"They put this huge scene there and to have him walk away with no charges would have looked bad," said Salvi, 35. "He's one of the most stand-up people I've ever met in my life."

Salvi said that Salguero would be out by the end of the night Wednesday.

In a 2009 Philadelphia Weekly profile of area survivalists, Salguero said that he grew up in Kensington and started Survive and Thrive to help people prepare for a cataclysmic event and become more self-reliant. Group meetings have focused on wild-food harvesting, primitive tool-making and emergency-trauma care, along with various firearms discussions. The group has a "Family Friendly Firearms Training" meet-up scheduled for Sunday at Colosimo's gun range, near 10th and Spring Garden streets.

"This is not a stereotypical all-male, all-God-and-guns survivalist group," Salguero told the paper. "Atheist, Muslim, Jew, LGBT, women, immigrants - all are welcome."