MUG SHOT Florida man caught with 73 stolen guns while riding around on tricycle

Elliott mug shot

 

Florida man Gary Elliott has been arrested and charged with a bevy of crimes after police found him riding a tricycle at two o’ clock in the morning while bearing two bags full of 73 guns.

Elliott began his evening by cutting a hole in the roof of Al’s Army Navy store in Orlando, and climbed through the hole along a rope he dropped to the center of the sales floor below. According to Neal Crasnow, the proprietor of Al’s, Elliott must have known to do that ahead of time, as there are no tripwires or alarms in the very middle of the floor. (Or, at least, there weren’t until this week.)

While in the store, this Florida man snatched up 73 different guns, stuffed them into two oversized duffel bags, and climbed back up the rope–to freedom.

But that freedom was short-lived. Elliott’s getaway vehicle was what some news outlets are calling a “three-wheel bicycle” and what others are attempting to dress up by way of the phrase “adult tricycle,” but what is actually, if we’re being honest, a standard old tricycle. Police in the vicinity of the store were investigating an unrelated series of car burglaries when they saw a man “dressed in dark clothing” and pedaling a “heavily loaded” tricycle down a residential street.

When Elliott realized he’d been spotted, he took a sharp turn behind a duplex, ditched the trikey and the bags, and tried to walk away as if nothing had happened.

Officers detained him, though, and soon uncovered evidence of the break-in. It helped that Elliott had a cut on his arm from his descent through the roof of the Army Navy store–the roof of the store, the floor of the store, and many of the guns in the bags all bore traces of fresh blood.

Apparently, Elliott had tried to cover up the blood he left on Al’s floor by spraying it with black paint.

Gary Elliott, 19, has been charged with the following crimes: armed burglary of a structure with a firearm; criminal mischief; possession of a firearm by a felon; and third-degree grand theft of a firearm.

He’s also charged with violating his probation, as Elliott had already been convicted on the felony charge of robbery with a dangerous weapon.

Officers were able to recover all but two of the stolen guns. It’s not clear whether the tricycle was Elliott’s, or whether it was also stolen.

 

(Photo credits: Tricycles one, two via Flickr; mug shot via Orlando PD)


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