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70-Year Old Michigan Man Arrested After Threatening to Steal a Coast Guard Helicopter

The suspect reportedly told Arenac County Central Dispatch that he intended to go to a Coast Guard station and “get a helicopter or a boat”.
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A 70-year old resident of Michigan named Jesse McFadden was charged with four felonies after allegedly threatening the staff of a US Coast Guard station, MLive reports.

According to the media outlet, on 17 May, Arenac County Central Dispatch received a call from McFadden who threatened to "quarantine them" and to shoot them, according to Hampton Township Police Lt. Michael Wedding.

McFadden also reportedly said that he was "going to a Standish hospital to shoot out the power and demand keys to ambulances", and that he "was going to the US Coast Guard Station Saginaw River in Bay County to get a helicopter or a boat".

Dispatchers relayed the information to police, adding that McFadden may have been a former Michigan Militia member who could have "machine guns or an M-16" in his possession, which would have "heightened everything", Wedding said. Later that same day McFadden arrived at a Coast Guard station in Essexville and, after finding himself unable to gain entry, threatened to ram the gate with his vehicle as he conversed with staff inside via a speaker.

McFadden eventually drove away from the base and was later detained at a gas station. A loaded 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun on the passenger seat of McFadden's car was the only weapon reportedly found in his possession, although police found "some prescription medication and marijuana".

On 18 May, McFadden made an appearance in court where he was arraigned on three counts of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing police and one count of transporting a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle.

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