A Hotel Worker is Being Praised After Spotting a Large Cache of Weapons in a Chicago Hotel Room

A hotel worker is being called a hero after giving police a tip about a load of weapons inside a Chicago hotel room.

A hotel worker at the W Hotel “likely prevented a tragedy from happening” when he spotted a rifle with a scope and laser sitting perched near the window in a guest’s hotel room. The window overlooked Chicago’s lakefront from the 12th floor. On Tuesday, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said a housekeeping employee possibly prevented a terrible incident from happening.

According to police, the cleaning staff for the hotel contacted authorities around 5:45 p.m., saying they noticed weapons set up “in a very suspicious position. When police arrived, they found a rifle, handgun, and five rifle magazines. WLS reports there were four magazines next to it, with a live round in the chamber.

The person in the hotel room was 32-year-old Keegan Casteel; agents for the Chicago Police Department Joint Terrorism Task Force questioned the man about his large amount of weapons. AOL.com reports Casteel was arrested without incident, and he was charged with two felony counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

Casteel appeared in court on Tuesday; a judge ordered him to be held on a $10,000 bond. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot applauded the worker for their attention to detail. “I want to thank the hotel worker who spotted this individual from Iowa who decided it was a good idea to come to our city with an arsenal, an AR-15, and five loaded magazines which he had perched upon the windowsill,” she said per CBS Chicago.