Cache of fear
Alum’s chilling calls to HS lead to arsenal bust
A LONG ISLAND MAN with a 16-year grudge against his former high school was found with a stockpile of weapons, including a bump stock similar to the one used during last year’s mass shooting in Las Vegas, police said.
Robert Csak, 32, attended the Summit School in Upper Nyack, Rockland County, in 2002, when he was a teenager, and on Saturday, he left a half-dozen voice mail messages for one of the school’s employees.
That alarmed school officials enough to contact police, leading to a check on his Lindenhurst apartment that uncovered the mini-armory, Suffolk County Police Chief of Department Stuart Cameron said.
“The apartment was described to me as very sparsely furnished, with a mattress, a plastic table, a plastic chair and the arsenal of weapons that you see before me,” Cameron said.
Csak’s landlord let cops in, and they spotted a tactical shotgun, a crossbow, an assault weapon, night-vision goggles and high-capacity magazines, police said.
Police got a search warrant and found even more guns — 19 in total. The stash included a silencer, more than 200 high-capacity magazines, a Tommy gun, bulletproof vests, gas masks, knives and collapsible “asp” batons.
“Among these weapons are nine guns that are illegal assault weapons,” Cameron told reporters Sunday. “One of these assault rifles had what’s referred to as a bump stock, which gained a lot of notoriety during the Las Vegas shooting.”
Csak wasn't home, but police said they found him in West Babylon at about 9:30 p.m. and arrested him.
A bump stock can be attached to the back of a semiautomatic rifle to absorb recoil and let the weapon fire continuously.
Stephen Paddock used one on Oct. 1 to rain bullets on a country music festival, killing 58 people and wounding or injuring 851 more in America’s worst-ever gun rampage.
On Saturday, Csak called a “specific school employee” at the Summit School, where he once was a student, Cameron said.
“From every indication that we had now, he felt slighted by this individual from an encounter back in 2002 and was carrying a grudge,” Cameron said.
Police traced the caller ID and checked school records, confirming he was the caller, cops said.
Csak left the messages for a 45-year-old man working at the school, police in Rockland County said.
“Although the messages were accidently erased, the staff member who had heard the messages relayed to the officer that he was concerned for the safety of the students and staff and also questioned the well-being of the caller,” Clarkstown police officials said in a statement Sunday.
Officials at the Summit School, which runs a residential program for students with emotional and behavioral problems, did not return a message seeking comment.
Csak fell on tough financial times — court records show he declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy in December 2016 to get relief from $16,000 in credit card debt and utility bills. His filings show his only source of income was about $1,070 in Social Security benefits and $900 a month from his dad.
Csak was charged with numerous counts of criminal weapon possession. He was awaiting arraignment, scheduled for Monday, in Suffolk County.