Usually, people end up appearing on Judge Judy to help them get over some petty squabbles and settle legal issues. It’s not often that those same people end up needing to go to real court after the show is over. A woman flying home to New York after appearing on the show in Los Angeles was arrested on charges of stealing the iPad of a flight attendant and also taking a passenger’s passport and bank card.
In the charges filed, it was reported that she hid the other passenger’s passport and bank card in her underwear.
According to NBC New York, 26-year-old Melissa Perez was arrested and charged with grand larceny and possession of stolen property, per the New Jersey police and Port Authority of New York.
Perez, of the Bronx, had gone out to Los Angeles to appear on an episode of the Judge Judy television show. She boarded an American Airlines flight to head back to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on Wednesday.
Her reasoning for being on the TV show was not revealed.
While on the flight, a crew member noticed that her small bag was missing. In that bag was her iPad and a number of other items, but it was now nowhere to be found.
At this point, the pilot came across the plane’s intercom system to ask for the passengers’ help in searching for the lost bag and iPad. The NY Post reported that about 45 minutes before the plane was scheduled to land, another crew member found the bag under Perez’s seat, 13A.
The iPad could not be found in the bag, but it was located in Perez’s carry-on bag.
Upon landing, there was a 29-year-old passenger who reported that her passport and bank card were missing. When speaking with the police, the passenger said that she had woken up from a nap on the flight and saw Perez near her purse.
Melissa Perez was then brought in and questioned by officers of Port Authority. This was when the other passenger’s passport and bank card were found in Perez’s underwear.
In her possession was also a prescription bottle that had close to 10 grams of marijuana. Perez does have eight prior arrests on her record, including some for drug charges, before the incident.
Judge Judy may have been the reasons she headed out to Los Angeles in the first place, but no-one expected her to have to appear before a real judge upon her return to New York. That is the case for Melissa Perez after charges of stealing an iPad and also taking a passenger’s passport and bank card and hiding them in her underwear.
[Image via Handout]
