SADDLE BROOK — A township man stabbed by his wife early Friday was arrested after authorities discovered a large stash of gunpowder, weapons and ammunition in the couple's Washington Street home, police said.

Robert Lintner, 64, was charged with creating a risk of widespread hazard for the possession and storage of 300 pounds of gunpowder, township police Chief Robert Kugler said Saturday. Lintner’s wife, Eileen, 65, was accused of stabbing her husband in the neck with a kitchen knife.

Following standard protocol, officers responding to the domestic incident tried to secure any weapons in the house, the chief said. When Lintner would not cooperate, police got a search warrant and called in firefighters to use the Jaws of Life to crack open several 6-foot-tall storage safes.

“Although initially thought to be [two] large gun safes, investigators found additional safes in the home that contained numerous hand and long guns,” Kugler said. “We secured barrels full of weapons which will be individually identified at a later time.”

In all, police recovered nearly 200 weapons -- including long guns and handguns -- as well as tens of thousands of rounds of various caliber ammunition, according to Kugler.

The search lasted through late Friday as investigators were seen removing garbage cans full of long guns, along with hunting arrows, ammunition and military-style ammunition boxes. Police filled at least two township public works pickup trucks with the seized items.

Kugler said the search warrant authorities were using expired at 11 p.m. Friday, but was renewed while police continued to haul weapons and munitions from the house. It was not immediately clear if any of the guns were illegally owned.

“A continuing investigation is ongoing and there is potential for additional charges related to the weapons which are being inventoried,” the chief added.

Township police alerted the Bergen County Police Department’s Bomb Squad to help remove the massive gunpowder and ammunition cache, authorities said. Investigators brought canisters of gunpowder out of a basement window before they were photographed by county sheriff’s crime scene investigators and loaded into another pickup truck.

The large amount of gunpowder “had the potential to be of significant danger to public safety to the home as well as adjacent structures,” according to Kugler.

The incident began around 8:30 a.m. when Robert Lintner was seen holding his wife outside their home and yelling for someone to call police, authorities said. He was treated for a neck wound at Hackensack University Medical Center and later returned to a neighbor’s house.

He released Saturday after posting $2,500 bail ahead of a municipal court hearing, police said.

His wife, meanwhile, was charged with aggravated assault and released on bail, according to police. She was not seen at the house during the search and could not be immediately reached for comment.

This report was last updated with new information from police



Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@nj.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

