Weapons, Ammunition Found in Jeep That Crashed Near White House

Suspect held without bond

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    AFP/Getty Images

    Secret Service agents found 200 rounds of ammunition, eight knives and two machetes in a Jeep that crashed into a White House security perimeter Sunday morning.

    Joseph Reel, 32, of Kettering, Ohio, is being held without bond on a charge of destruction of government property.

    He is accused of jumping the White House fence after the crash and later telling the Secret Service he wanted to spray-paint a “Don’t tread on me” snake somewhere on the grounds as a “symbolic gesture.”

    Reel fastened a wooden block on the accelerator of his Jeep Patriot, allowing it to crash into a light post, a steel bollard and other parts of the security perimeter at 17th and Pennsylvania Avenue, according to court documents. A short time later he rode up to the White House and climbed over the fence at the north courtyard of the Old Executive Office Building, the Secret Service said.

    He dropped a spray-paint container as the Secret Service chased him. He was not carrying a weapon, the Secret Service said.

    Reel told arresting officers he had been doing surveillance of the White House complex the previous day, "looking for a way in," according to court documents.