Special Delivery: Boxed Bronx Man Ships Self To Texas

UPDATE: Crate guy hit with federal criminal charge

SEPTEMBER 9--Meet Charles McKinley. The 25-year-old nitwit is under investigation for a bizarre stunt on a trip Saturday from New York to Dallas. But McKinley wasn't a passenger, per se. He somehow got himself inside a cargo crate that was eventually loaded onto a Boeing 727 at Newark International Airport. The plane first flew to Buffalo, then to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where the crate was transferred to another jet, which proceeded onto Texas. The wooden crate was then picked up by Pilot Air Freight, a ground shipping company, and delivered to the DeSoto home of McKinley's parents. There, deliveryman Billy Ray Thomas "noticed a pair of eyes between the slats of the crate," according to this DeSoto Police Department report. Thomas told cops he thought a dead body was in the crate, "until the slates were kicked open and a live person emerged from the crate." After exiting, McKinely shook the deliveryman's hand and offered his thanks. The delivery guy reciprocated by calling the cops, who busted McKinley for some outstanding warrants. McKinley, who works at a Bronx warehouse, was apparently aided by a coworker who sealed him inside the crate, the manifest for which claimed that it contained computer equipment and clothing weighing 350 pounds. FBI and Transportation Security Administration agents are now probing McKinley's escapade. (3 pages)