His Kids Feared Ex-Russian Military Dad ‘Booby-Trapped’ His Bergen County Home, Police Say

Anatoly Zaytsev, 67, remained held in the county jail in Hackensack on Wednesday, March 23, more than two weeks after members of the county Bomb Squad and other responders converged on his Oakland home and seized rifles, high-capacity magazines and silencers.

The incident reportedly began when Zaytsev’s son told borough police that his father surrendered five guns to him. 

The son also told them the Ukrainian-born Zaytsev “stated to him that he was going to kill himself,” according to court papers obtained this week by Daily Voice.

He and his sister said their father urged them to flee the home because they "didn’t have much time,” Oakland Police Sgt. Keith Docwra wrote in his report.

Zaytsev owns long rifles and had buried silencers and high-capacity magazines under a backyard deck of the Raeben Avenue home just off Route 202, Docwra said the son told them.

Zaytsev had also been in the Russian military and has “extensive electronic knowledge,” the siblings added, according to the report on file in Superior Court in Hackensack.

“They believed [based] on this information that the defendant possibly booby trapped the home or installed an explosive device,” Docwra noted.

“The reason this occurred was because in the last two weeks he lost over $400,000 in the stock market,” the sergeant reported.

Oakland police immediately summoned the Bergen County Bomb Squad.

After ensuring the residence was safe, police seized four rifles -- one of them an Archangel 5.97 semi-automatic with a pistol grip and a threaded barrel – as well as two high-capacity magazines and a silencer from a safe in the home, Docwra said.

They also found five high-capacity magazines and two silencers under the deck patio, he said.

Two of the magazines held 32 rounds each, another two each held 20 rounds, three more held 15 rounds each and the eighth held 18 rounds, the sergeant reported.

Zaytsev is charged with the unlawful possession of an assault firearm, large-capacity magazines and a prohibited weapon/device (the silencer). A judge ordered that he remain in the Bergen County Jail pending further court action.

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