What can “Brown” do for you? How about steal your guns and sell them on the street?
That’s what the feds allege after arresting UPS driver Craig Francis on Thursday and charging him with swiping weapons he was supposed to deliver to a popular Chelsea gun range.
Francis snatched the packages instead of dropping them at the Westside Rifle and Pistol Range at 20 W. 20th St., said prosecutors for the Manhattan U.S. attorney.
The delivery man then resold them to street buyers, said sources close to the probe.
Francis was arraigned on two weapons charges in Manhattan federal court Thursday after turning himself in to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives at its field division in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. A UPS internal security team escorted him there.
UPS sources said the investigation began after a dealer had complained that a gun sent legally to the range never arrived.
After additional shipments were found missing, UPS security discovered that each lost package was due to be delivered between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. by the same driver, Francis, said company sources.
They quizzed Francis, then brought him to the ATF, where he was arrested while wearing the company’s iconic brown delivery uniform, the sources said.
No one involved in the case said how many weapons were missing or where they went. “How many guns did he take and who did he resell them to? How long did this go on? That’s what we’re trying to learn,” said one source.
The ATF would not comment on the probe.
Francis’ wife, who would not give her name, said she hasn’t spoken to her husband since his arrest and was worried about him.
“Right now, I’m losing my mind,” she said from the couple’s home in Morris Park in The Bronx. “I can’t talk to him. I won’t know anything until Monday.”
They live above a catering service called The Brunch Box. Its owner said he was always curious how Francis could afford to drive a new BMW.
“I don’t know how he does it,” the man said.
The range’s owners were not available for comment, according to one of the managers, who gave his name as John. He said they were cooperating.
Additional reporting by Melissa Jane Kronfeld and Christine Caulfield