The 74-year-old former Marine and security worker has a state-issued carry permit and is now suing in attempt to get police to return the three legally acquired handguns they removed from his home last May.

Gilbertsen believes in Bigfoot, UFOs and receives treatment for a “mild” mental health disorder. Police were alerted to him after people at his apartment complex reported that he frequently brings up government conspiracies and expresses concerns that the CIA is spying on him.

He wrote a series of letters alleging that he was constantly being harassed by CIA agents that had infiltrated his apartment building posing and tenants and staff and said the conspiracy even reached into the Richfield police department.

“There are literally hundreds of CIA spies in Richfield alone that harass me,” Gilbertsen said in one letter. “There are thousands of these people in the south-suburban area. I am certain I will be murdered some day.”

Gilbertsen also keeps a list containing over 75 license plate numbers from vehicles he believes have followed him. Even though he didn’t threaten violence in any of his letters, officers still came to his home and demanded he turn over his guns.

It was the Hennepin Community Outreach for Psychiatric Emergencies (COPE) that called police about Gilbertsen after his apartment managers voiced concern about the letters.

COPE, which has been called a “SWAT team for mental illness,” is a 30 person agency that handles around 13,000 cases in the area. They asked the cops to escort them to Gilbertsen home, resulting in the subsequent confiscation.

His psychologist has asserted to the judge in his case that Gilbertsen is compliant with his medications and poses no danger to himself or others, but Richfield police officials say it is now their role to determine the status of individuals’ mental states.

“The street cops nowadays have to be a psychologist,” Lt. Mike Flaherty said. “People don’t wear nameplates saying ‘paranoid schizophrenic.’ So the police have to go in there and make judgment calls.” Read more: http://policestatedaily.com/5051-2/