Maybe he thought it was an Apple.
A Long Island City man, in the custody of Secret Service agents, snatched a Kingston USB flash drive and swallowed it in a desperate attempt to destroy the evidence against him.
Florin Necula was arrested outside a Queens bank on Jan. 21. He and the three other collaborators are accused of using credit card skimmers on ATM slots to extract the magnetic strip information of the cards inserted.
Following the arrest, police recovered laptops, cameras, flash drives, and cell phones during a raid of the Long Island City apartment they used.
Necula and the three co-defendants were awaiting questioning and processing at a Secret Service office in Brooklyn where Necula “grabbed Subject Flash Drive 2, which had been on his person at the time of his arrest, and swallowed,” according to a Feb. 25 search warrant affidavit obtained by the Smoking Gun.
Doctors became concerned about possible injury when Necula was unable to pass the flash drive after four days. Eventually Necula agreed to allow New York Downtown Hospital doctors to remove the item.
A Kingston executive, Mike Sager, told the Smoking Gun that it was unclear if stomach acid could damage a flash drive.
“As you might imagine, we have no actual experience with someone swallowing a USB,” Sager said.
In addition to three other felonies, Necula is now charged with obstruction of justice. He is being held at a Queens jail without bail.
