Every week I am going to feature a story of a tale so unheard and bizarre that it's almost unbelievable. These stories will be come from reputable sources I find across the internet and with me personally checking the validity as well.

- The Stowaway -

Charles D. McKinley, 25, of Brooklyn, N.Y., had four weeks of vacation coming, so he decided to visit his parents in Texas.

Rather than buy a plane ticket for $320, McKinley, a shipping clerk, packed himself into a shipping crate and air-expressed himself home, charging the fees to his employer.

The box was taken by truck from New York's Kennedy Airport to New Jersey. Then it was loaded onto a pressurized, heated cargo plane operated by Kitty Hawk Cargo.

It flew from Newark, N.J., to Niagara Falls, N.Y., then to the carrier's hub in Fort Wayne, Ind., and on to Dallas, the FBI said.  Billy Ray Thomas, a driver for Pilot Air Freight, picked up the crate at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and delivered it to McKinley's parents' home in suburban DeSoto.

When Thomas went to unload the 350-pound crate from his truck, he saw a pair of eyes and thought there was a body inside. McKinley then broke the box open and crawled out.

McKinley's mother was stunned {I'm sure} and the delivery driver called police and then changed his underwear.

DeSoto police said the crate measured 42 by 36 by 15 inches. McKinley stands 5-foot-8 and weighs 170 pounds and it was later learned that crate almost got put in the lower, unpressurized and unheard holds.

And get this!  The cost to ship himself?  $550 which he billed to his employer.  He was homesick and broke and this was the only way he could think to get home.

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