‘MY WAR TROPHY’

Neo-Nazi Who Allegedly Stole SWAT Helmet Busted for Jan. 6

The feds say they found the stolen helmet hidden inside a chimney in Richard Zachary Ackerman’s basement bedroom.

A neo-Nazi who allegedly stole a police helmet and threw a water bottle at a cop during the Capitol riot has been arrested on felony charges. According to court documents, videos and photos captured Richard Zachary Ackerman putting on a helmet, which he says he found on the ground, and trying to breach the building via a tunnel. Two days after the insurrection, the FBI received an online tip with a picture of what is believed to be Ackerman’s stolen helmet defaced with a sticker of “New England 131,” a white supremacist network in the northeast U.S. The court documents say Ackerman was searched and questioned when he returned from a trip to Germany in August 2021. While he admitted to taking the helmet during the riot, he denied keeping it. But the feds say messages showed him sending a selfie of himself in the helmet and holding up his middle finger, calling it “my war trophy from the SWAT team.” The helmet was allegedly found during a June 2022 raid hidden in a fireplace chimney in Ackerman’s basement bedroom.