ARREST IN 258G JFK CASH HEIST
A Delta Air Lines worker was busted on Thursday for allegedly swiping some $258,000 in cruise-line cash from a flight at JFK Airport — and the money is still missing, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
FBI agents arrested Quincy Thorpe at his Brooklyn home for allegedly stealing the bag of cash during his shift on Tuesday, and he was charged with the federal crime of theft from an interstate shipment.
The unrecovered dough is a mix of US and foreign currency that came from a cruise ship, sources said.
The cash, which was transported by armored car to JFK on Tuesday, was supposed to go to Miami on a Delta flight that morning, according to a criminal compliant filed in Brooklyn federal court.
Thorpe, an employee of Delta Ground Services, scanned the eight bags but snatched one containing $258,205 at some point before takeoff, court papers charged.
It wasn’t until the flight arrived in Miami that a security company employed to pick up the cash realized one of the bags was missing.
Suspicions arose when Quincy called out of work in the days after the theft, according to court papers. Surveillance footage obtained from Delta shows someone matching Thorpe’s appearance scanning and loading seven bags onto the flight and placing the eighth in a vehicle that they later drove off in, prosecutors charged.
Thorpe admitted to FBI agents at his residence on Thursday that he had been responsible for loading the bags onto the Delta flight and knew they were valuable, according to officials.
He was arraigned before Magistrate Judge Robert Levy and freed on an $80,000 signature bond.
Thorpe later exited the court in a hooded sweat shirt (left).
“We are going to vigorously defend him against the charges,” said his lawyer, Lonnie Hart Jr.
A Delta spokesman said the alleged crime did not reflect the “professionalism of Delta members.”