Frank Main, Stephanie Zimmermann and Fran Spielman
Chicago Sun Times
Copyright 2006 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Back in 1992, Chicago firefighter Ted Kozak was arrested with a cache of guns and Nazi paraphernalia in his Northwest Side apartment.
He and his brother allegedly told police they did not like Puerto Ricans in the neighborhood, according to news accounts.
But the gun charges were dropped, and Kozak kept his job.
On Friday, Kozak was arrested in a new weapons case. He was charged with felony possession of two automatic weapons, as well as misdemeanor charges of having 63 other unregistered pistols, rifles and shotguns in the same Northwest Side apartment in the 4100 block of West Barry, officials said.
Posters of Adolf Hitler, a bulletproof vest with a swastika patch, a German helmet and other Nazi items also were found in his home, Chicago Police said.
Investigators found a vintage Thompson machine-gun, which the U.S. Army had used in World War II, as well as a Sten machine-gun, which had been issued to German troops, said Thomas Ahern, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“Could he just have been a collector of World War II stuff? Maybe,” Ahern said. “But when 100 guns are not accounted for, it raises a lot of questions.”
Ahern said investigators found receipts for more than 100 weapons going back about 15 years.
Kozak, 55, also had loaded magazines containing bullets for the machine-guns, Ahern said. He did not cooperate with investigators, Ahern said.
Kozak did not have a federal license to possess machine-guns, Ahern said.
Chicago Police officers in the Calumet Area gun team searched the apartment after getting a tip that unregistered weapons were there. The ATF and the Chicago Fire Department also participated in the search.
Officers found a machine-gun once used by Japanese troops during World War II, but it was missing a part, Ahern said.
Conversion instructions
Police found manuals to convert semi-automatic weapons to fully automatic fire, as well as German uniforms and a smoke grenade, Ahern said.
Kozak has another home in Michigan, and investigators will check to see whether any guns are there, Ahern said.
None of the guns had been recovered in the 1992 raid, when 51 guns were seized, said Chicago Police Deputy Chief Mike Shields.
Kozak’s disciplinary record on the Chicago Fire Department is clean, said Larry Langford, a department spokesman.
But Fire Commissioner Raymond Orozco called the allegations “very troubling to me.”
“I am extremely saddened that one of our members could be involved in such conduct, but I want to make it very clear this kind of conduct does not represent the 5,000 members of this department,” he said.
Ald. Ed Smith (28th), chairman of the Black Caucus, said he does not believe the arrest will rekindle racial tensions that have plagued the Fire Department over the years.
Kozak works at the firehouse at 6239 N. California in the heart of the West Rogers Park Jewish community. A Jewish school is down the street, and the Ner Tamid Ezra Habonim Congregation is a half block away.
Also on that stretch of California Avenue are an Indian community center and an Islamic center.
At the Northwest Home and Rehabilitation Center, a non-profit Jewish nursing home across the street from the firehouse, shocked staffers recalled firefighters coming in to use their copier and to chat. Executive Director Stephen Nussbaum said he didn’t know Kozak but that other firefighters he dealt with were helpful and professional.
“You’re going to find strange people all over the place,” Nussbaum said.
NEIGHBOR DEFENDS FIREFIGHTER
A watch commander at the firehouse defended Kozak as a veteran firefighter and Army veteran who served as a military policeman. “He’s a good guy,” said the commander, who declined to give his name. “They’ve got the wrong guy.”
No one answered at Kozak’s home, a tidy brick two-flat. Well-tended impatiens bloomed around the base of an evergreen in the yard and two white swan planters held colorful geraniums.
Neighbor William Ortiz, who saw part of the police raid Thursday night, said he was surprised by the allegations.
Another neighbor, a Hispanic man who lives on the block, defended Kozak as “good people.”
“He’s a gun collector. That’s his hobby,” said the man, who did not want his name published. “I didn’t know about the swastika stuff.”
The man said Kozak lives with his elderly mother. “I don’t think he’s a racist or anything like that. He’s a fireman. . . . Some people collect those types of things because they’re fascinated by that.”