SANTA BARBARA, Calif- Santa Barbara Police have arrested a wanted man they say had an arsenal of guns and ammunition in his car during a routine traffic stop.
Police say they've taken a dangerous criminal off the streets and seized dozens of guns they say would have been used in future crimes.
A 33 year old man is in the process of being returned to Kings County in northern California on an arrest warrant for rape, but not before he was found allegedly driving through Santa Barbara with a trunk-full of stolen guns and ammunition.
Santa Barbara Police put on display a haul of guns and ammunition to the local media it says it found in a car driven by 33 year old Eric Allen Ross of Carruthers, a town in northern California.
Santa Barbara Police say during a routine traffic violation last week, Ross was found to be wanted on a felony arrest warrant for rape, intimidating a witness and terrorist threats.
Santa Barbara Police say they searched Ross' car and eventually found 18 different guns, some of which were loaded, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Police say Ross told them the guns belonged to his father who had recently died and that he was taken them to Orange County to sell them.
"We determined that all these rifles, handguns had been reported stolen in a residential burglary", says Santa Barbara Police Lieutenant Paul McCaffrey, "Mr. Ross, as it turns out, had been named as a suspect in this burglary case."
Santa Barbara Police say Ross is considered a parolee at large and armed and dangerous.
"In my career here spanning 32 years I can't think of a single case where we've recovered this many stolen firearms from one individual at one time", McCaffrey says.
Eric Ross was being held in Santa Barbara County Jail but he's expected to be returned to King's County in northern California on the felony arrest warrant.
