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Joey Cramer Arrested In Shockingly Un-Disney Like End For ‘Flight Of The Navigator’ Star

By Zachary Volkert
Published on: 23:15 PST, May 5, 2016

Sweet-faced Joey Cramer from live-action Disney classic Flight of the Navigator has been arrested for a Canadian bank robbery wherein the former child star was nabbed after being recognized on surveillance video — but not because of his 1980s film career.

As it turns out, Joey has had quite the rough patch following his years as a pint-sized Disney actor.

Last week, Cramer was caught on tape robbing a Scotiabank in his native British Colombia. Authorities arrived too late to apprehend him on the scene, but after reviewing tapes, some officers recognized Joey from previous skirmishes with local law enforcement. Cramer was dressed in a wig with hair that touched his shoulders, topped off with a bandana.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)’s Sunshine Coast constable Harrison Mohr explained the chain of events to local paper Coast Reporter.

“Despite the fact that [Joey] used a disguise during the robbery, the suspect was quickly identified by some of our officers, who had recently dealt with him on an unrelated matter. We hope that the community feels safer now that the suspect has been apprehended… Fortunately no one was injured, and bank robberies are an extremely rare occurrence here on the Sunshine Coast… We can’t comment on any weapon at this time, other than to confirm no one was injured and no physical violence occurred.”

Though law enforcement did not reveal whether or not Joey was armed, Mohr did say that customers and staff were inside the bank at the time of the robbery — remarking that the experience was quite frightening for them. Cramer was able to escape the scene and again managed to avoid apprehension the day after when he fled law enforcement. He was finally arrested on May 1.

Joey also previously ended up at odds with the Canadian law for fraud. In 2011, police put out a call for his arrest for altering the names and dollar amounts on checks, Coast Reporter wrote at the time. A few years beforehand, Cramer was also arrested for firearm and drug possession, as well as public consumption of alcohol, reported National Post.

While armed robbery is a relatively novel charge for a former child star, Joey’s run-in with the law certainly isn’t the first time that a famous child’s face has morphed into a mug shot before the public’s eyes. In fact, the phrase “former child star” has practically become code for drug-addled adolescence followed by self-help book-funded recovery. Those who knew Cramer personally seem to believe he was dealt a similar fate, such as former friend Keith Duggan:

“Joey was doing really good. He was a movie star, a skateboarder, a good rapper. He basically had the total package. He had everything in front of him; all he had to do was keep it together. But, I guess like many child stars, who maybe don’t have the coping faculties or the maturity, it was too much too soon.”

Flight of the Navigator was by far Cramer’s biggest role, although he appeared in several other films and television shows after he was established by the Disney sci-fi movie. Famed sci-fi author Michael Crichton directed a film with him and Tom Selleck two years before Navigator, and he also appeared with Daryl Hannah in The Clan of the Cave Bear that same year. He also had a starring role in Stone Fox, a 1987 TV western.

Would you have recognized Joey Cramer from his Flight of the Navigator days?

[Image via Disney]

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