Nicholas Charles Yukich, a 54-year-old security guard from the University of California, Santa Cruz, was arrested, Thursday, on suspicion of plotting a large-scale burglary and bearing illegal arms, assault weapons and ammunition.
Currently, Yukich is being held on a $150,000 bail at Santa Cruz County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court, June 7. He is charged with conspiracy to commit grand theft. He has no previous criminal record in Santa Cruz County.
Yukich has been placed on administrative leave with pay from his job pending the investigation.
The police was tipped off by an individual that Yukich had approached for the planned burglary.
"He was definitely the mastermind of it," Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Steve Clark said. "Think of it kind of like an Ocean's Eleven kind of a heist. It was a lot of surveillance, a lot of recognizance that had gone into this, a lot of planning to actually carry this out."
Investigators discovered about 48 guns, rifles, pistols, handguns and shotguns, high-capacity magazine, and 50, 000 rounds of ammunition including armor-piercing rounds in Yukich's Live Oak mobile home.
"We discovered a number of firearms that were stored inside of a false wall inside the home. Inside that false wall was yet another false wall that led to additional firearms and ammunition that were seized in the home," said Clark.
The possession of assault weapons and armor-piercing rounds are considered illegal in the state of California. Some of the weapons were licensed and modified, but others were not.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is now collaborating with the probe.
The university said that the housing department employed Yukich as a community service officer, the position he has been holding since 1981. The job description is similar to that of a night security guard.
"The CSO positions give us extra personnel on campus in case a need arises in the housing areas during those hours," university spokesman Jim Burns said.
Police alleged that Yukich had been planning the elaborate theft for a year now. He had been was actively surveilling the proposed target, hiring assistants and accumulating materials for his grand plan.