The man was at the home of a non-resident relative on Ridge Road in Rumson, according to the Press.
A 49-year-old Rumson man, said to be despondent over financial difficulties, was hospitalized after heavily armed police from Rumson, Fair Haven and Little Silver surrounded his Ridge Road home Sunday morning, today’s Star-Ledger reports.
Rumsom Police Chief Richard Tobias says Seth Kronengold faces possible weapons possession charges in connection with an illegal assault rifle and found by police, the Sledger reports. Other firearms were removed from the house.
From the story:
A relative contacted police earlier today because she was concerned Kronengold was upset over back taxes and the repossession of his car, according to police.
Tobias said officers who went to check on Kronengold around 9:48 a.m. found ammunition and a bullet proof helmet inside his home.
“It was just like the bullet proof helmets we wear,” said the chief, referring to police.
The officers backed out of the home and evacuated three families from the area as a precaution, Tobias said.
Police wearing tactical gear returned armed with assault rifles. Kronengold, who was spotted in a second-floor window, surrendered without incident, Tobias said.
Removed from the home were two handguns, a 15 round magazine, and two rifles, including an imitation M1 Carbine, which is illegal assault weapon in New Jersey, according to the chief.
Here’s how the Asbury Park Press reported it:
Fifteen officers from Rumson, Fair Haven and Little Silver police departments responded and evacuated homes in the surrounding area as a precaution, police said.
Tobias said that police could see the man through the window on the second floor of the home at 7 Ridge Road.
“They called him to come outside,” Tobias said.
At the scene, police cars, several unmarked sport-utility vehicles and an emergency medical service vehicle lined both sides of the street of the quiet, upper-middle-class neighborhood.
Police closed both ends of Ridge Road to traffic. An occasional passerby stopped to ask what was happening.
The man, identified by police as Seth Kronengold, 49, nephew of the home’s nonresident owner, Lois K. Rosenthal, peacefully exited the home at 1:55 p.m., police said.
Kronengold was charged with possession of an assault rifle — illegal in New Jersey — and police are checking the legality of two handguns and a shotgun that also were found in the home, Tobias said.
Kronengold was taken to Monmouth Medical Center for an evaluation, Tobias said.
No shots were fired, no one was harmed, and Kronengold did not threaten police during the incident, Tobias said.
Police requested the Rumson Health Department evaluate the home’s condition, Tobias said.
One police officer at the scene described the inside of the split-level house as disheveled and dirty, with bugs crawling the floor in some locations.
Let’s face it, this guy was distraught because his dope supplier just got busted. He obviously needed a fix and couldn’t score.
You know Nemo there is nothing funny about this - this guy was obviously out of his mind and getting ready for some sort of action (maybe like Columbine) - with that type of weaponry it is only good for one thing - "killing people" - what if he had gone to his old job site, or RFH or Knollwood or RBR - instead of being stopped! before he could act! - would you still be making some juvenile comment then?
and what about these crimes - you folks are always blaming someone maybe it's time to starting beating up on the "pinky whites" they seem to be out of control.
Save the preacher Monday quarterback nonsense for the uninformed. Sure it would have been a shame if he went on a killing spree, but he didn’t. So sit down. Under other circumstances, that this "pinky white" had access to these kinds of weapons shows how backwards the system remains; clearly we need some form of reasonable gun control which prevents ownership for certain weapon types. That the system got to him before he got to your precious shopping mall shows us that, either we got lucky or the system is in fact starting to police itself effectively. My guess is good police work - more to the point – two serious busts in the RFH area in as many weeks – kudos to law enforcement.
"nemo" unfortunately your previous comments make ANY additional comments YOU MIGHT MAKE irrelevant, maybe it's time for you to grow up. thank you George Bush!
I am grown up. Nevertheless, I must endure ignorance on the far right and screaming socialists on the extreme left. Now please go back to your lobotomy.
Yeah this guy did some serious crime - took out some high schools, blew away some innocents. Oh wait he didn't. In fact, he never left the house.
But still, this kind of almost crime happens all the time, almost. In fact, just last century, John Mulheren went off his meds and set off to get Boesky. And that ended in horrible and tragic….(drum roll)…humiliation of the perp. But not before traveling more than 500 feet from his house!
Let's start beating up on dem pinky whites yo!
How dare any of you people pose judgement on this man. Seth was sick and had many prior problems with the loss of his parents, his uncle, his friends. He is a person who is not out to harm anyone but himself. You all need to take your self rightous, ego centrical minds and realize he is a human being whom none of you knew and no one even cared about until this. You guys don't know his history or what he has been through or the type of character he has because all you do is sit in judgement while you go home to your own disfunctional families and live your own demented lies. You are different than Seth by your inflamitory comments and judgement. The difference lies with the fact that Seth acknowledges his sickness and his ability to want to harm himself because he feels alone and abandoned, at least he is trying to get help, you all pretend like you are better than him because the reality is you are just hateful people who have miserable lives and nothing better to do than to focus on others demises. No one else has the right to pretend they know this situation and no one has the right to judge those whom they don't even know. Columbine my ass, all of you are jerks with a small level of intelligence and a huge level of easily being judgmental and disseminators of hate. At least I can sleep at night knowing he is a human being in need of support and love and psychiatric help. You all will have to live with yourselves, and by judging the way you all speak of this person, by whom you don't even know personally, you live miserable lives and only find happiness in others suffering.
A family member
Nemo are you really? I may not agree with McCain Train on a lot of things, but your initial comment are very disturbing to make levity of such a serious situation shows a certain amount of immaturity on your part, I realize that RedBankGreen John can not regulate who posts and what their ages are, but it is clear that after such superlative work from our brave local police and in such a dangerous situation, that your comments are not only immature, but most likely that of a stoned out teenager, who grows pot and lives in their parents basement, I hope the police get you next!
Sick people kill people more than non-sick people, all the time a more often, why allow a sick person to have "two handguns, a 15 round magazine, and two rifles, including an imitation M1 Carbine", why would a sick person be allowed to have a semi-automatic weapon, who gave this sick person this weapon. a Powder keg simply waiting to exploded , Hopefully Seth will be in a Prison Hospital environment for along time. Thank you local Police
This Is my friend. You People ever suffer your parents passing 3 months apart? let alone anything of real life. Did you loose everything you had? Do you know what its like to have the rug ripped from underneath you?Oh and the police inly did there job after seth sat in that house like that for to years so yeah great police force.LMAO Funny thing is if they had heeded all the calls from neighbors about the condition of the house and the disappearance of seth they may have solved this 2 years ago. The system is for crap. Its so sad to see that it is easier to demonize a person. Look at your country look were it got us.So funny people have learned nothing at all over the last eight years. Hope you don't treat your family like this…
"That guy". The police cannot act until they have grounds to act. It says a relative called them out of concern for Seth, THEN they acted.
I am sure they knew there was a problem there but with this terrible system in our country, people in desperate need of help, cannot be helped until things get to a point like this!
Take your ignorance elsewhere. No one got hurt (thank god) and seth is getting the help he needs. Lets all give thanks for that!
Madmartha (and whomever else to which it applies), clearly myopia has prevented small minds from following the string of comments on the other big news (reported earlier on redbankgreen) out of the RFH area: that of the teenage dope dealer busted. Succinctly, my first comment was merely postulating a connection. No more, no less. Was it insensitive, absolutely, this guy obviously needs help. But as it turns out, I am not in the business to provide socialist help, nor do I generally sympathize with sufferers of the human condition – as we all have our own cross to bare, are own rounds of self loathing or some other vice to deal with – don’t go believing you are above such things as well. As it turns out, his family member and his friend above apparently cared enough to defend this bloke, but nevertheless let his condition fester to this point. And these were the people who loved him and probably prayed for him as well. Perhaps next time all you pity peddlers out there should intervene prior to the point where the civic authorities have to put their lives on the line.
Madmartha/knucklehead Smith are idiots. Why give this guy a semi automatic weapon? Why give madmartha/knucklehead the right to free speech? the police are considering the M1 Carbine to be illegal under NJ statute 2C:39-1(w-1). However this is a semi automatic weapon. If this carbine has no pistol grip, folding stock, bayonet lug and flash suppressor or lacks a combination of 3 or more of those, it is not an assault weapon. The AR-15 is legal in New Jersey but that is on the banned list with the M-1 Carbine. The AG and the State Police have consistantly held that without the flash suppressor and the boyonet lug the semi auto AR is not an assault rifle. the same will hold true for the M-1. The guy only had a 15 round magazine so he is compliant there.
Madmartha ever heard of the 4th amendment? the guy had ammunition and a helmet. These are not illegal in NJ. No one can make ammo fire from a helmet, so where is the danger? In that aspect the cops had no reason to search further once they found the guy alive, which they did, Tobias said he saw the guy alive through the window. Remember there was no violence, the Aunt was concerned he might have been dead.As for your Columbine/shopping Mall corelations, Dylan and Klebald didn't use assault weapons and the melo Park mall shooting of Sept. 2007 involved a revolver so take your reasonable gun control which prevents ownership for certain weapon types and chuck it, you just want to ban everything. There has not been a single murder involving any rifle, much less a "semiautomatic assault rifle," in the State of New Jersey. No person in New Jersey was ever killed with an "assault weapon" prior to the ban. Outlaw marriage, kitchen knives, baseball bats and motor vehicles, they have actually killed New Jersey Citizens, that would be more reasonable.
Dear Mr. self righteous Thomas Pane, You are an idiot who likes to believe you understand the world and the people who live in it but, heres the problem, you don't! Our family has tried intervention but, Seth's problems went further than any of us had imagined. You can blame us till kingdom come but you, put in the same situation, wouldn't have even given a shit about the problem to begin with. I am not beneath you or above you, as I am a human just like you. The difference is I know the situation, I know Seth and we did everything we could. You, my ego-centric and self righteous idiot, only understands judgement . . . maybe you should find some help for yourself, as you seem like you need be knocked down a peg or two.
Hey anonymous, maybe you need to tweak your reading skills?
Not once did I blame the guys family. I blamed the SYSTEM. Law enforcement couldnt't act until notified by the concerned relative.
I know many families pull their hair out trying to get help for people like him. The system fails alot and sometimes ends alot worse then this did. I personally knew people who didnt get help and ended their own life. So dont try to say I dont understand.
So before you spout your venom, and say I am self-righteous, try reading and understanding.
phramer7,
I was so surprised by your assertion that no one has been murdered in NJ with a rifle that I googled "NJ murder rifle" to see what would come up. Here's what my quick scan found:
11/11/08: attempter murder in Asbury Park with a .22 caliber rifle
Dec. 07: Khalif Logan murdered in Newark with an AK-47
And that's just 5 minutes with Google.
It is no use Dan… anybody who pulls out the statutes is likely a gun toting NRA lifer toeing the outlandishly inflexible (and fallacious) party line, at which point one must toss rational discussion right out the window and endure pinko commie retorts.
Dan and Captain Nemo what's with the Pinko Commie comment? Who is trying to circumvent the Bill of Rights with the BS reasonable regulation arguemnt? Not me.
I said prior to the ban, the Ak incident was in late 2007. the AK47 in Newark was full auto and was regulated since the 1930s. that wasn't a legal weapon. Although how well did your reasonable regulation work there? Anyway look at the names, that was gang on gang violence and not Columbine or a mall shooting. Gang on gang violence is certainly not a guy sitting in his house. 2nd the .22? that was attempted. you found one example of a murder with an illegal rifle post ban woo hoo, how many murders do you have with bats and knives? why aren't you banning them?
Gee Dan i'm sorry for looking at the Statutes, aren't they the reasonable regulation your talking about? Fallacious? An true "assault weapon" cannot be semi automatic. So who is fallatious? the guys running around calling every single rifle an assault rifle and screaming Columbine/Mall Shooting or me stating the fact that no one was killed with an assault rifle before the ban? And after the 15 year old ban you come up with one incident? Of a gang banger? Besides in NJ the determining factor comes down to a bayonet lug, so its the stabbing aspect that determines the assault status. Ridiculous. Just like your supposed reasonable regulations. I stand by my comment. This guy committed no crime other than being depressed and not calling his Aunt.
Phramer. First the AK was not even put into development until 1944. How could Newark regulate it since the 30's if it didn't exist.
I agree to a certain degree that some of these gun laws dont make much sense. Regardless of bayonet lugs, or flash suppressors, the M1 carbine is a banned weapon, regardless of its features. Therefore, if he had one in his house, it is illegal.
Your statement was, "There has not been a single murder involving any rifle, much less a 'semiautomatic assault rifle,' in the State of New Jersey." In a couple of minutes with Google, I found a murder and an attempted murder within the last two years.
Now you seem to be saying that you were only talking about assault rifle murders before the assault weapons ban, and gang violence doesn't count.
People are killed in NJ with rifles.
let us take the classic NRA party line: “guns don’t kill people, people kill people…” Fine. By the same logic, nuclear bombs don’t kill people by themselves either, but that doesn’t mean I want the common man having access to fissile material.
you're all driving me crazy.
i have to laugh!!!! rumson, fair haven ,little silver, there police dept. has no idea about serious crime!!!! they spend all there time writing tickets, woo hoo!!!!!!
Paine, Dan, Nemo
i re read my sentence. My stats were prior to the NJ ban my apologies if i wrote that poorly.
Regardless, you have come up with one instance of a rifle shooting since the early 90's and it was gang on gang drug related murder.
T Paine, the AK-47 went into service in 1947 hence the 47 designation. While its true Mikhail Kalashnikov began work in 44 after stealing the design from the German Sturmgewehr 44 (which actually means assault rifle in German)
"A" stands for Avtomat or Automatic in Russian and "K" stands for Kalashnikova or Kalashnikov's last name.
All automatic weapons have been regulated by the federal government since the Federal Firearms Act of 1938. This law was to stop Dillenger's Bonnie and Clyde's and Capones from out gunning the police with the BAR and the Thompson sub machine when the police only had .38's and shot guns. (Did you know the .357 magnum is just a .38 special designed with more powder to penetrate car doors. At that time there was no FDIC and if the bank robbers escaped with the money they escaped with the entire towns money and that was that. Shooting at fleeing robbers was accepted LE practice at that time.)The New Jersey "Assault Weapons Ban" while it does outlaw automatic it also lists semi automatic versions of the same. You can't however, have an AK and it be semi auto, it just doesn't corelate with Avtomat. (There must be another designation, i'm not sure if its AKM or SKS but it is similar to the difference between an M-16 and a AR-15.)
Regardless, you guys are missing my point. I said Ceth was depressed and Ceth didn't call his Aunt. Whether or not he needed medical help, he commited no violent crime and therfore the blanket that knucklehead and madmartha put on him and rifles and regulations was not warranted for Ceth.
Niether did Ceth need to be arrested for that M1 Carbine nor did they need to search his house after they found him alive.
As for NRA party line, whats with that? im not talking about nuclear weapons, i was talking about the search and seizure in Ceth's residence. i will admit keep and bear, does not apply to nuclear weapons but it does apply to the M1 Carbine. You may not like it NEMO but i personaly dont like your ignorant use of the 1st amendment to bad mouth the 2nd and blanket stereotype Ceth who commited no crime other than not pay taxes. Your nuclear argument is an anti gun talking point and demonstrates your failure to understand history. Which by the way, not paying taxes was the reason we threw off the yoke of Great Britain in the first place and now have a Bill of Rights including the 1st, 2nd and 4th. If you want one you have to take them all!