A Seymour man was arrested Monday for falsely reporting that someone at the Westfield Mall was armed with weapons.
Anthony Spinelli, 53, left a restroom inside the mall at 5:42 p.m. and started yelling that there was a person in the restroom armed with a gun, police said. Security alerted a police officer, who was inside the mall at the time, but responding officers found no one with a weapon.
Spinelli was located in another section of the mall, where police found him to be in possession of an illegal knife. Further investigation revealed that Spinelli had previously caused a disturbance at a food establishment inside the mall.
Police said they located Spinelli’s vehicle, which contained a large knife, a wooden baton, an ax and a BB gun, which were all seized by investigators.
Spinelli was charged with falsely reporting an incident, carrying a dangerous weapon, breach of peace and carrying weapons in a motor vehicle. He is being held on a $50,000 bond.
Spinelli has been a local news reporter for many years. He has covered Milford and surrounding cities in the past as a reporter for several area newspapers and Internet-based news organizations.