Jet Blue Employee Busted For Stealing Cop’s Gun
Posted on Friday, 1 of May , 2009 at 7:54 pm
QUEENS—A Rosedale man who works for Jet Blue at John F. Kennedy Airport has been charged with gun possession for allegedly stealing a 9mm handgun that had been stored in a locked gun box and checked by a police officer before she boarded a flight to Orlando, Fla.
Tamarcus Hines, 21, of 240-34 Weller Ave., Rosedale, Queens, was arrested Thursday, charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, fourth-degree grand larceny, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and fourth-degree criminal mischief. If convicted, the defendant faces up to 15 years in prison.
“It is upsetting that a passenger who buys an airline ticket and lawfully checks her luggage – in this case a secured, legally possessed handgun – has been subjected to having her belongings stolen”, Queens district attorney Richard A. Brown said. “This case is, however, especially egregious in that the defendant is alleged to have brazenly stolen a 9mm handgun that had been properly secured by its owner, a sergeant with the New York City Police Department.”
The district attorney said that on April 22, between approximately 8 a.m. and 9:40 a.m., Hines, who is employed as a baggage handler by Jet Blue, was working at Terminal 5 in John F. Kennedy Airport, when he allegedly broke into a suitcase containing a secured handgun that had been lawfully checked as luggage by an NYPD sergeant before boarding Flight 59 to Orlando.
After breaking into the suitcase, Hines allegedly broke into a locked gun box inside the suitcase and stole an unloaded 9mm handgun, ammunition and a gun holster.
The district attorney said that when the sergeant arrived in Orlando she noticed that her suitcase had been tampered with and that her gun was missing. She alerted authorities in Florida and New York.
An investigation by Port Authority Police Department detectives led to the arrest of Hines who allegedly admitted taking the gun and later dumping it into a sewer located at the intersection of 150th Ave. and 114th Place in Queens. The gun, ammunition and holster, which had been placed inside of a black gym bag, were later recovered from the sewer. 5-1-09
Category: Courts, Crime, New York State, Police
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