Chicago Police officers arrested Keegan Casteel, a 34-year-old man from Ankeny, Iowa, after cleaning staff at a hotel found a rifle with a laser sight in his room, which overlooked a public beach on the shores of Lake Michigan, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Police were called to the W Hotel on the 600 block of North Lake Shore Drive at 6:45 p.m. local time Monday evening after a member of housekeeping staff providing turn-down service reported finding the rifle and a handgun on a window sill of the 12th floor room overlooking the beach.
“This employee saw something by entering a room to clean it that likely prevented a tragedy from happening,” Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said Tuesday. “So it’s significant and very valuable and we ought … (to) praise that employee for being aware and letting us know so we could react quickly and potentially avoid tragedy.”
A car mechanic with no significant criminal history, Casteel was arrested at the hotel and faces two counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. He was ordered held in lieu of $10,000 bail Tuesday by a Cook County judge, and police asked him to turn over all his gun licenses.