Man Allegedly Steals $1.5 Million Worth of Nike LeBron 12 Shoes

A Memphis man appeared in court Monday nearly a month after jacking a large shipment of then-unreleased Nike LeBron 12 shoes.

The haul, according to ESPN.com's Darren Rovell, included 7,500 pairs of shoes with a total estimated retail value of $1.5 million.

Rovell reports that the alleged culprit, Charles Jennings of Memphis, Tennessee, used his access as an employee of Intermodal Cartage Group, a trucking company, to gain entry into a company lot and drive off with a truck filled with the shoes.

STEVE DYKES/Associated Press

Mark Dunbar, assistant chief of the Shelby County Sheriff's Office, told Rovell that Jennings knew what he was doing when he made off with a truck stuffed with absurdly expensive footwear.

"He had a pretty good idea what he had," Dunbar told Rovell. "They were Nikes, and they were more valuable in that they hadn't been released yet."

Jennings would be arrested a week after the theft by an inescapable and omnipresent branch of justice known as the Memphis Auto Cargo Task Force. Authorities determined Jennings had experienced some quick success selling the shoes, reporting approximately 700 pairs missing from the original count. Rovell reports that Jennings confessed to stealing the merchandise during his arrest.

To review, a man stole a truck full of LeBron James shoes from his own company and was brought down by a shadow group of cargo law enforcement agents. Also worth noting is the fact there are 700 hot pairs of LeBron 12s out in the world that were purchased before release.

Sleep with one eye open, shoe traffickers. It's not a question of "if" the MAC Task Force will find you. It's when.

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