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Homeless Worker Held On Weapons, Fake ID Charges

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 11, 2008

Timothy Tad Smith

TAMPA - A homeless man who worked odd jobs for a weapons business kept a secret stash of firearms and fake identification, officials say.

What Timothy Tad Smith, 36, planned to do with the eight machine guns and short-barreled rifle was not clear this morning. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested Smith on Thursday after searching a storage unit he had rented, an affidavit states.

Smith, who has no known address, was held at Orient Road Jail this morning on $83,000 bail.

He is charged with nine felony weapon-possession charges and five felonies related to the possession and manufacture of counterfeit identification.

An affidavit lists Smith's employer as Florida Ammo Traders at 6001 Johns Road, Suite 638, in Tampa. The business owner, Vic Grechniw, said this morning that Smith was not on the payroll but did menial tasks, such as cleaning rifle slings.

"He kind of hung around and did odd jobs for us. We fed him," Grechniw said.

The weapons in the storage unit did not belong to Florida Ammo Traders, Grechniw said.

"We're shocked. We're shaking our heads," he said. "We don't know what this was about."

Deputies from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, working with the ATF, arrested Smith about 5 p.m. Thursday at the ATF's downtown Tampa office, records show.

The sheriff's office this morning referred all questions about the case to the ATF, saying this was a federal investigation. An ATF spokesman was not available this morning when contacted by a reporter.

An affidavit states that Smith granted the agents permission to search his storage unit at 6717 Benjamin Road on Wednesday. The storage facility is roughly a quarter-mile from the firearms business.

An attempt to reach the owner of the storage facility was unsuccessful this morning. Grechniw said he heard the owner had called authorities after finding an air conditioner hooked up to a unit and thought Smith was living there.

In the affidavit, Smith told the agents he had converted the machine guns from semi-automatic to fully automatic firing capability.

Inside the storage unit, agents also found a counterfeit Texas driver's license, a counterfeit Social Security card and a computer with several identification-card templates, an affidavit states.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement records show Smith has not been arrested previously on felony charges in this state. He received probation in 1996 for misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance, misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia, reckless driving, high-speed fleeing to elude law enforcement and refusing to accept a traffic citation.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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