Welfare check leads APD to drugs, guns

Posted at: 08/20/2010 6:01 PM
By: Stuart Dyson, Eyewitness News 4; Charlie Pabst, KOB.com

Police found drugs and dozens of guns at a home on Zurich Place.

In a strange case Thursday, Albuquerque police seize guns and narcotics during a raid of a local eye doctor.

Phillip Simmons didn't show up at his office Thursday, which prompted a patient to call police for a welfare check. What they found was quite a surprise.

Police say they found Simmons face down and unconscious at his home on Zurich Place near Spain and Juan Tabo. Inside the home, they found heroin, marijuana and dozens of rifles and pistols. The city says the home was a disgusting mess.

"There was clothes everywhere. There was dirty dishes everywhere— dirty dishes on top of the stove. There was human feces on the floor. There was animal feces on the floor. There was what appeared to be an infestation of mice," Albuquerque Public Safety Spokesman T.J. Wilham said Friday.

City inspectors tagged the home as unsafe. Police seized 52 guns, two ounces of heroin, three pounds of pot and 30 marijuana plants.

Simmons is an optometrist with an office on San Pedro. He remains hospitalized and has not been charged with anything yet.

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