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‘They were trying to help': Armed anti-heroin crusaders arrested on way to ‘rescue’ girl in NYC

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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June 22 at 6:25 AM


The truck pulled up to the Holland Tunnel headed to New York City at around 8 a.m. Tuesday.

It could hardly have been more conspicuous.

Emblazoned with emergency lights, neon green accents, crosshairs on each door, snippets from the Constitution and the name of a Pennsylvania gun range, the truck quickly drew the attention of Port Authority police.

Cops noticed a crack in the front windshield, according to NBC4. When they looked more closely, they spotted ammunition on the front seat.

Inside the souped-up truck, authorities discovered a small arsenal: five pistols, an AR-15 assault rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun, ammunition, half a dozen knives and body armor.

Some of the weapons were loaded, authorities said.

Police arrested the truck’s owner, John F. Cramsey, as well as its two other occupants: Dean S. Smith and Kimberly Arendt. All three were charged with illegal possession of guns and ammunition.

Three arrested with guns at Holland Tunnel
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Authorities say three people were arrested with a cache of weapons, some loaded, after police stopped them near the Holland Tunnel in New Jersey June 21. (Reuters)
The arrest made national headlines. The truck was headed from New Jersey into downtown Manhattan, and would have emerged barely a mile from Ground Zero. The arrest also came just nine days after the deadly mass shooting in Orlando.

“3 Arrested With Multiple Loaded Guns, Knives, Body Armor at Holland Tunnel on Way to NYC,” ran NBC4’s headline.

The New York Police Department’s counterterrorism chief tweeted that his department was “monitoring the events unfolding.”

New York City’s Joint Terrorism Task Force was called, according to ABC.

But the trio’s true intention wasn’t terrorism, according to Arendt’s mother.

“They were trying to help,” Michele Plocinik said.

Plocinik told The Washington Post that her daughter had received a startling text message Tuesday morning from a young woman who said she was on heroin and in trouble in New York City.

Arendt recruited Cramsey, owner of the gun range, to help her save the woman, Plocinik said. Both Arendt and Cramsey belong to a group devoted to fighting heroin addiction. Smith tagged along to film.

They were arrested just a few miles from their mission.

“I know for a fact they weren’t going to shoot anybody,” Plocinik said. She said she understood the concern over the guns, but said the media had made a “mess” of the situation and authorities were wasting their time.

“They are going after the wrong people,” Plocinik said of police. “These people were trying to help people on drugs. Now they are all sitting in jail.”

Arendt, who also goes by the last name Walker, and the two men will appear in a Hudson County, N.J., courthouse Wednesday morning to be formally arraigned, NBC4 reported. At that time, their lawyers will have a chance to explain what Plocinik called “a big misunderstanding.”

For those who know John Cramsey, however, his arrest hasn’t exactly come out of the blue.

When police removed evidence from his truck, they came across an ammunition container that hinted at his own personal struggle — and at his anger.

“Shoot your local heroin dealer,” said a neon green message on the ammo box.

Cramsey’s road to his arrest at the Holland Tunnel began back in February.

That’s when his own family was shattered by heroin.

On Feb. 20, authorities found the bodies of Cramsey’s 20-year-old daughter, Alexandria, and her boyfriend inside an Allentown, Pa., row-house.

The couple had overdosed on heroin, Cramsey said at a community meeting six weeks later.

During the meeting, the 50-year-old grieving father took umbrage when the Lehigh County Deputy Coroner said each autopsy on a suspected overdose victim cost taxpayers $2,500 to $3,000.

“You’re telling me my daughter’s life isn’t worth $3,000?” Cramsey shouted, according to the Morning Call.

He then told a panel of prosecutors, law enforcement officials, counselors and a doctor that the community needed help in its fight with heroin dealers.

“They’re selling poison,” Cramsey said.

“This is a plague and we are losing our brightest and most brilliant minds,” he told the newspaper.

Cramsey’s solution was “Enough is Enough,” a group he co-founded after his daughter’s death to combat Pennsylvania’s raging heroin crisis. Alexandria Cramsey’s suspected overdose was one of 10 such deaths in a two-week period, Morning Call reported.

Cramsey began promoting events and anti-heroin messages on his Facebook page.

“Training tonight for properly administering Naloxane,” he wrote on June 1, alongside pictures of his daughter. “The lessons you learn might just give you the tools to save the life of somebody closer to you than you would ever think possible. …”

“Nothing will ever change until we ALL have the courage to stand together and shout out loud,” he wrote. “ENOUGH is ENOUGH!”

Some of his Facebook posts were more menacing, however. In some, he pointed high-powered assault rifles at the camera at threatened drug dealers. Several posts made it appear he was waging a one-man war on heroin mongers.

“Word on the Streets says that you F—— have put a ‘Bounty’ out on my A–,” he wrote on June 10. “Bring it … I’d be more than happy to introduce you to my daughter. LET THE PURGE BEGIN.”

More at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...n-nyc/?hpid=hp_no-name_no-name:homepage/story
 
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