In April, Jabin Bogan was transporting 268,000 rounds of ammunition from Tennessee to a gun shop in Arizona when he took a wrong turn.
"He told me he was coming from the warehouse, missed a turn, and was stuck one-way going south," Bogan's manager at Demco Express, Dennis Mekenye, told ABC News. "At that point he asked a cop how to make a U-turn and was told to go three or four miles, but at that point was in Mexico."
When he attempted to reenter the U.S., he was arrested and thrown in a Mexican jail. Bogan insisted he had entered the country accidentally. Mexican authorities claimed otherwise, hitting him with weapons-trafficking charges that carried a possible life sentence. They eventually relented and released Bogan after his mother paid a fine, according to ABC.
So Bogan made it home to a tearful reunion with his mother and 6-year-old son. The cargo did not. It wasn't insured, either, which has the guy who paid for all that ammo kind of pissed.
David Lansky and his company, United Nations Ammo, jointly filed a lawsuit in federal court last week alleging that Demco, which had been hired to deliver the shipment and which employed Bogan, had breached its duty by failing to deliver. The suit also alleges that American Group, LLC, a third party that connected Lansky with Demco, had been negligent in failing to ensure he was contracting with a reliable carrier.
Lansky goes on to point out that the U.S. Department of Transportation concluded in May that Demco posed an "imminent hazard" to public safety and could no longer operate.
Investigators determined, among other things, that the company had falsified drivers' records, allowed operators to drive with suspended licenses, used drivers without licenses, and did not properly screen drivers for controlled substances.
A number listed for Mekenye, Demco's owner, was disconnected.
All told, Lansky wants $84,435 in damages. Those bullets might suffice, but they certainly aren't coming back.
