Man Steals $160K Diamond, Trades It For $20 Worth Of Pot
Criminals, by their very nature, aren’t very bright. And some are just downright dumb. Take Walter Earl Morrison, for instance. The 20-year old Morrison worked at a UPS distribution center at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, unloading cargo planes. Last week, according to a report on Phoenix news station ABC 15, Morrison allegedly lifted a package he thought contained cash and stuffed it into his shirt. When he opened the package, he found a beautifully cut diamond, which he promptly traded away to his dealer for a $20 bag of weed. The thing is, the diamond was valued at well over $160,000.
Morrison was eventually caught and charged with felony theft. He was also promptly fired from his job at UPS. Even though the theft is by far the worst thing to come out of this story, the fact that Walter Earl Morrison would think a trade of any gem — much less a very recognizable diamond — for $20 of marijuana is almost as bad. According to a local jeweler in Phoenix, “any single stone worth over $100,000 is an expensive stone.” We really didn’t need an expert to tell us that.
The incident comes on the heels of more bad news for UPS. Earlier this week, a terminated employee at a package sorting center in Birmingham, Alabama, returned to his job site, according to a story on The Inquisitr, and opened fire, killing two ex-co-workers, both supervisors. The shooter, 45-year old Kerry Joe Tesney, was upset that he had been let go after 21 years on the job. Tesney, according to a report on WBTW, had worked as a driver for the shipping giant. The report goes on the explain that Tesney’s dismissal was due to an alleged on-shift theft of a truck part.
“But documents in a court case show Callans was involved in a dispute over a missing radiator after an automotive company sued UPS and Tesney, alleging Tesney wrongly took the part while making a package pickup in 2010.
“HESCO Inc. filed suit in 2010 claiming Tesney had wrongly picked up a $4,000 radiator for shipment either intentionally or by mistake. The lawsuit went on for three years before a judge ruled in favor of Tesney and UPS on Sept. 23, 2013, exactly a year before the shooting.
“A brief filed by HESCO said Tesney gave differing accounts of what happened to the radiator. Tesney told the owner of the company he took it by accident, but Tesney told a manager that he had used it as a “tray” to carry items to his truck.”
In the case of Walter Earl Morrison, exchanging a $160,000 diamond for $20 of pot seems tame compared to the cold-blooded murder of two UPS supervisors. Morrison awaits trial for the theft in Arizona.
[Images courtesy fo ABC15 and Google]
