600lb inmate hides gun in lockup for over a day
George Vera, 25, was arrested Sunday for possessing or selling unlabeled recordings.
Like all prisoners, he was processed and searched to uncover contraband, but prison staff overlooked something unbelievable. The portly prisoner had concealed a 9mm handgun amidst “layers of fat.”
Vera had been searched three times before he revealed his hidden weapon- once at the scene, and again at city and county jails. None of the three searches detected the gun. A union official attempts to explain the slip-up:
Houston Police Officers Union President Gary Blankinship said cadets are trained how to search morbidly obese people.
“We teach officers to lift up and look under,” Blankinship said. “The officer may not have arrested anyone this big before.”
Blankenship said that system clearly does not always work.
“They can be so big, basically short of strip searching or searching cavities, they could miss something like this,” said Blankinship.
It was Vera himself who actually made the presence of the gun (and two clips) known to prison officials. He’s now free on bond, but he was charged with possessing or selling unlabeled recordings and possession of a firearm in a correctional facility. He faces ten years in the slammer, but maybe he could smuggle in a Wii and some games or maybe a cross-stitch project to pass the time?
