Homesick Texan packs himself up for trip to Dallas
He violated the law of stupidity if nothing else.
- Bill Hill
You're young, you're broke, and you're a dumbass. That shouldn't prevent you from travelling, should it? Well, it certainly shouldn't, at least not if you're our latest DUMASS AWARD wiener.
Charles McKinley just wanted a cheap way to get home to see his parents, so he stuffed himself into a shipping crate and billed the cost to his employer. Perhaps he would have attracted less attention if he hadn't shipped himself overnight.
DALLAS -- Charles D. McKinley had himself shipped from New York to Dallas in an airline cargo crate, startling his parents -- and a deliveryman -- when he broke out of the box outside their home.
"My husband asked him, 'Man, what are you doing in this crate?' He said he was coming home," his mother told KDFW-TV in Dallas.
Federal officials want to know how the stowaway bypassed airport security.
McKinley, 25, a shipping clerk from New York, was arrested and jailed on unrelated bad-check and traffic charges after his overnight odyssey.
Federal officials are considering additional charges of stowing away on a plane.
In a rambling jailhouse interview, McKinley told KXAS-TV in Dallas that he made the trip because he was homesick and a friend thought he could save money by flying as cargo.
McKinley said he took no food or water on the 15-hour journey, just a cell phone, which did not work.
Before setting out, McKinley filled out shipping instructions saying the crate held a computer and clothes.
Authorities believe he had help from at least one co-worker at the warehouse where he works in New York.
The box was taken by truck from New York's Kennedy Airport to New Jersey. Then it was loaded onto a pressurized, heated cargo plane operated by Kitty Hawk Cargo. It flew from Newark, N.J., to Niagara Falls, N.Y., then to the carrier's hub in Fort Wayne, Ind., and on to Dallas, the FBI said.
On Saturday, Billy Ray Thomas, a driver for Pilot Air Freight, picked up the crate at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and delivered it to McKinley's parents' home in suburban DeSoto.
When Thomas went to unload the 350-pound crate from his truck, he saw a pair of eyes and thought there was a body inside.
Then McKinley broke the box open and crawled out, said police Lt. Brian Windham. McKinley's mother was stunned. The delivery driver called police.
Fortunately, McKinley the overnight package was placed into a heated and pressurized cabin. He could just as easily have been put into an unpressurized cargo hold. If that had been the case, he would have been ineligible for a DUMASS AWARD, but he certainly would have been up for a Darwin Award.
For stretching the bounds of human stupidity as well as those of human travel, we are proud to bestow the latest DUMASS AWARD upon Charles McKinley. I'm not so sure that he should he be so proud to receive it, though.
