A Tooele explosives expert is scheduled to be arraigned in California Thursday after being caught by police hauling more than 1,000 pounds of explosives on I-15 in Southern California
Jack Tomlin, 60, was pulled over Jan. 18 in San Bernardino County. In Tomlin's truck, police found 14 rockets, 400 blasting caps, 1,000 grenade fuses and two massive explosive devices. Some of the rounds were live and some were not.
Tomlin said he was taking the munitions back to Tooele, where he was going to disarm them and put them in an upcoming military museum at the Deseret Peak Complex in Grantsville.
Tooele County Commissioner Teryl Hunsaker is a good friend of Tomlin's. He said Tomlin has spent his life dealing in military surplus and has been around the world five times collecting military and war items.
San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney Glenn Yabuno said Tomlin did have a federal license to haul the explosives, but he did not have a required California license to be possessing or hauling the items.
Even for possessing the blasting caps and grenade fuses, Yabuno said, Tomlin needed to have a California license.
Tomlin picked up the explosives from a firm in California, said Yabuno. He said investigators are now deciding whether that firm, which he refused to name, legally gave Tomlin the weapons.
Many of those same disarmed weapons can be found in Tomlin's home, said Hunsaker. Tomlin has a fantastic military collection at his house that rivals any museum, he said.
"I believe there was no mischievous intent on his part," said Hunsaker.
Tomlin is being held in the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga on $500,000 bail. He was charged with possessing a destructive device on a public road and possessing ingredients to make a destructive device.
If convicted, Tomlin would face up to 10 years in prison.
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