Man arrested at Ga. Army base had land mine, laser sight in bag, but not terror threat

Man seized at Army base had land mine, laser scope

FORT GORDON, Ga. — A civilian pretending to be a soldier convinced an Army officer to give him a sophisticated laser sight for military rifles before he was caught hours later on the base with a land mine, several grenades and night vision devices, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors said in a criminal complaint that Anthony Todd Saxon, 34, falsely pretended to be an Army master sergeant on Tuesday and sought to steal the infrared laser targeting sight. He was expected to appear in federal court later Wednesday.

Saxon was wearing a full combat uniform, including rank and insignia, when he was stopped at Fort Gordon by military police and questioned about his activities, according to the complaint. After Saxon gave them consent to search his vehicle, authorities said they found several grenades and the land mine, among other equipment.

According to the complaint, Saxon told investigators he was able to obtain the laser sight by telling a captain in the base’s military police office that he was a master sergeant in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and that he needed it to train a soldier.

He told investigators he was able to obtain the device after signing a receipt, according to the court documents. He also said he was a member of the Army National Guard between 1993 and 1995, but was medically discharged for heart problems, according to the records.

Fort Gordon spokesman Buz Yarnell said Saxon was stopped on the Army post because his car matched the description of a vehicle suspected in an earlier theft of military equipment from the post in April. Yarnell would not say what had been stolen.

Yarnell said the grenades, called “flash bangs,” use blinding light and loud noise to stun people but don’t explode into lethal shrapnel.

“He couldn’t have done any serious damage,” said Yarnell, who would not say whether the explosives were detonated.

He said there’s no suspected connection between Saxon and an AWOL serviceman arrested Monday in Florida after he tried to enter MacDill Air Force Base with weapons and ammunition in his vehicle. But Yarnell said military authorities still don’t know what Saxon was doing on Fort Gordon.

Yarnell also didn’t know if Saxon used a military ID, either fake or real, to get onto the base. Fort Gordon, near Augusta, is home to the Army Signal Corps, which is in charge of the service’s global communication and information systems. He said the post, which is also home to the Eisenhower Army Medical Center, typically allows civilians to enter if they show some form of identification.

“Anybody can get on Fort Gordon with a driver’s license,” Yarnell said. “It’s open to the public, basically.”

Associated Press Writers Greg Bluestein in Atlanta and Russ Bynum in Savannah contributed to this report.