Arms Cache Found at School Employee’s Home

SAN CLEMENTE —  Sheriff’s deputies investigating the disappearance of school maintenance equipment found a large cache of weapons Wednesday at the home of a Capistrano Unified School District employee, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

The arsenal was stored inside two safes at the home of Jerry Peacock, a groundskeeper, said spokesman Jim Amormino. It included eight machine guns, more than 80 military-style assault rifles, several World War II-vintage carbines and 50,000 rounds of ammunition.

Deputies said Peacock, 43, was arrested on suspicion of receiving stolen property and violating numerous weapons laws. Officials said some of the automatic firearms they found are banned under state law.

Peacock was being held in Orange County jail on $500,000 bail.

Peacock did not tell investigators how he obtained his collection or why, Amormino said. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is helping local investigators trace the origin of the guns.

Peacock, who worked at the district’s 41 campuses as needed, has been on disability for five months, according to district spokeswoman Julie Jennings.

Sheriff’s investigators had been following a tip for several weeks linking Peacock with items taken from the school district, including rakes, ladders, power tools, tree trimmers and trash cans, officials said.

In Peacock’s backyard, Amormino said, deputies found a red trash can with the district’s initials and found other district property inside the home.

Before the 7 a.m. raid, another tipster alerted deputies that Peacock kept a large number of weapons at his duplex.

“Even with that tip, we were surprised ourselves to find what we found in there,” Amormino said, adding that Peacock had never threatened students or school district employees.