Man Arrested For Trying To Burn Down Condo Had Apartment Full Of Nazi Memorabilia
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A plethora of Nazi memorabilia was found inside the home of a man who was arrested for trying to kill Jewish people.
Photographs taken by investigators show the inside of 72-year-old Walter Stolper's home, which was full of items such a Hitler coffee mug, a Nazi marked knife and plenty of other anti-Semitic items.
The photos, in addition to surveillance video of Stolper, will be used as evidence against him in a hearing next month.
Stolper is currently awaiting trial on charges of attempted murder, arson and possession of a destructive device.
The surveillance video, which was released by prosecutors last September, shows Stolper wheeling what prosecutors say were dozens of big gas jugs off the elevator and to his apartment.
Police said he had poured eight large containers of gasoline down the building's trash chute.
In total, police say they found 28 containers of gasoline, sulfur power and potassium nitrate inside his building.
Stolper was stopped by police last July as he was going into his condo at 5601 Collins Avenue with two tanks of gasoline.
"Already in the building he had disposed of eight additional gas canisters down the trash chute from the 15th floor," Ernesto Rodriguez with Miami Beach police said following Stolper's arrest. "We were minutes away from a potentially deadly situation."
Police credited Stolper's friend Luis Diaz for turning him in after the two shared what Diaz described as a strange phone conversation.
Stolper reportedly said he was going to "burn down the building with all of the [expletive] Jews."
"He told me he was tired of the association and the Jews in the building and he wanted to do something about it," Diaz said.
Police had also received a tip that Stolper was making derogatory comments about Jewish people because he was being evicted. He lived on the 15th floor.
"Inside of the unit we found Nazi reading material as well as a swastika," said Rodriguez. "He is a very, very, very dangerous individual and our detectives also seized two firearms."