Stolen license plate caught by Flock camera leads police to hotel room with gun, drugs, 4-year-old child

LIBERTY, Mo. (KCTV) - The Liberty Police Department has credited its Flock Safety camera system with leading them to a man and woman who they say had a 4-year-old in a motel room with a loaded gun and dangerous drugs.

Brandon Schulenberg, age 30, and Amanda Guffey, age 28, both residents of Independence, were charged Wednesday with drug trafficking and child endangerment, among other crimes.

A probable cause affidavit filed in court Wednesday described what police found on the room to include meth, fentanyl, and “a homemade smoking pipe that was made out of a child’s bottle.”

It described the gun as having a frame that appeared to be 3D printed, with no identification on it, hallmarks of what has come to be known as a “ghost gun.” The document said the gun had a loaded magazine with a live round in the chamber.

“The four-year-old, it was all within his reach. It was very concerning,” said Liberty Police Capt. Nathan Mulch. “You know, several officers there are all parents, were pretty upset about it. The child was turned over to a biological family member and is in a safe place now.”

Police described some of the items as being “in plain view,” which then prompted them to obtain and execute a search warrant. In addition to 17 grams of methamphetamine and 10.85 grams of an unknown powder, the officers said they found 7.96 grams of fentanyl, which is equivalent to 3,980 fatal doses.

All of it happened by chance.

Mulch and the court affidavit said a Flock Safety camera hit on a stolen license plate on Tuesday. Officers were alerted by the camera system, then searched the area to find a car with that plate in the parking lot of WoodSpring Suites at 1911 Industrial Drive. After examining motel surveillance, they were able to locate the room of a man who exited the car with the stolen plate.

“(The) car was actually stolen out of Lee’s Summit,” said Mulch. “We weren’t actually looking for it or anything. We didn’t know what was in our city until it ed one of these cameras.”

Mulch said many metro-area agencies are deploying Flock Safety cameras to assist their human police force. KCTV5 previously reported on their use in Blue Springs, Gladstone, and Kansas City, Kansas.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: AI-enhanced camera technology helps solve Blue Springs murder

Even agencies that don’t have the cameras have information entered into the system. That’s how Liberty police got the hit on the plate stolen out of Lee’s Summit.

“There’s a national crime database that all stolen auto license plates are entered into,” Mulch explained, “and then Flock has an integration with NCIC to push all that information out to their camera systems.”

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Gladstone PD catches Wisconsin fugitive wanted for murdering pregnant girlfriend

Mulch said Liberty has ten cameras throughout the city at a cost of $3,000 per year each. An officer, he said, would cost 30 times that with benefits added to salary.

“That camera is sitting there, running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. I can’t put an officer out there for the cost of that camera,” he said. “It’s a huge cost savings, and we capture all the data that we need to help try and solve crimes.”

The data is not stored long-term, he said. The records are maintained for 30 days then purged. The ACLU has been critical of the growing network, writing in 2023 that it is “contributing to the creation of a centralized mass surveillance system of Orwellian scope.”

Schulenburg and Guffey were taken into custody. They are both in the Clay County Detention Center on a $100,000 bond and facing nearly identical charges:

• Second-degree drug trafficking

• First-degree endangering the welfare of a child

• Possession of a controlled substance

• Unlawful use of a weapon

Schulenburg also faces an additional charge of unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Court documents indicate he is on probation or parole for burglary and stealing.

Neither had an attorney of record listed.

“This case is a stark reminder of the ongoing dangers posed by fentanyl and ghost guns in our communities,” LPD stated. “Fentanyl is an extremely potent synthetic opioid, just a few milligrams can be fatal, which is why the amount recovered in this case represents a significant threat to public safety. Additionally, ghost guns, untraceable firearms often assembled without serial numbers, present a serious risk to both law enforcement and the public.”

LPD did not indicate whose custody the four-year-old child is now in.

Copyright 2025 KCTV. All rights reserved.