x
Breaking News
More () »

Mother: My Daughter Was Going To Help Someone, Not Use Weapons In NYC

FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP — The three Pennsylvanians who were stopped at the Holland Tunnel Tuesday morning in a vehicle packed with loaded guns will spend anothe...
holland tunnel trio

FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP -- The three Pennsylvanians who were stopped at the Holland Tunnel Tuesday morning in a vehicle packed with loaded guns will spend another night in jail.

The trio was arraigned Wednesday in New Jersey on numerous gun charges and they have not made bail.

Family and friends maintain the three were going to New York City to help a young girl in trouble and never intended to use those weapons.

Michele Plocinik is trying to remain strong as her daughter sits in a New Jersey jail, locked up on weapons charges.

“It is breaking my heart, it's breaking my heart,” said Plocinik.

Plocinik says she talked to her daughter, Kimberly Arendt, 29, shortly after she was arrested.

“She was crying, she was mad, she didn't really understand why because she doesn't know any gun rules or anything like that,” explained Plocinik.

Port Authority police stopped the vehicle carrying Arendt, who is from the Lehighton area, and two men, John Cramsey, 50,  and  Dean Smith, 53, both from the Lehigh Valley, Tuesday morning at the entrance to the Holland Tunnel.

But once authorities found a cache of loaded weapons inside the pickup, all three were taken into custody.

However, the trio says they were coming to New York City to rescue a 16-year-old girl from people using heroin.

Plocinik says her daughter knows that girl from a camp Kimberly worked at and that girl reached out to Kimberly for help.

“She thought this was a good thing they were doing. If you saw their picture, they were pumped,” said Plocinik. “They were trying to help somebody. They weren't going out there to harm anybody.”

The three were arraigned on numerous gun charges.

Plocinik doesn't know the two men personally, but says her daughter met them through an anti-heroin group run by Cramsey called “Enough is Enough.”

Friends of Cramsey say he became a self-proclaimed vigilante against the drug after losing his daughter to a drug overdose.

“He simply extended his hand and faced people that no one had the courage to face and ask for that person back,” said friend Thomas Rodriguez from Allentown.

“That's why the group is Enough is Enough. They're tired of seeing these overdoses and people losing their children to drugs,” said Plocinik.

Authorities say John Cramsey is licensed to carry weapons in Pennsylvania but not in New Jersey.

Before You Leave, Check This Out