3 charged in $500,000 Sports Authority heist

Three Philadelphia men have been charged with the armed heist of three tractor-trailer loads of Sports Authority merchandise - worth $500,000 - from a Burlington County warehouse.

The main defendant, Bernard "Bernie" Jackson, 45, made his first appearance yesterday in federal court in Camden to hear the charges against him after being held for several months on unrelated charges in Texas.

Jackson and his two codefendants are accused of robbing the Burlington Township warehouse April 5. Jackson was a former employee of Salson Logistics, a trucking company that delivered Sports Authority merchandise to stores on the East Coast.

On the evening of the robbery, two men approached the warehouse's lone guard and pulled a gun. The men tied up the guard in an empty trailer.

Over the next four hours, Jackson, driving a stolen Salson Logistics truck, took three loaded trailers from the warehouse, according to the criminal complaint.

Three days later, police found one of the emptied trailers in an industrial park in King of Prussia.

The next day, a second trailer was found in an industrial area of the Hunting Park section of Philadelphia. That trailer was full of merchandise, which was returned to Sports Authority.

On April 10, investigators received a tip that a large amount of Sports Authority goods was being sold from the Libertad Lounge and a nearby warehouse in North Philadelphia. About $200,000 worth of merchandise was recovered from the bar and several other locations, the complaint said.

A month later, the third trailer was found, engulfed in flames, on Holstein Avenue in Philadelphia. The stolen Salson truck was parked nearby.

After another tip, investigators approached one of Jackson's alleged accomplices, Anthony "Tim" Berry, 42. Berry admitted his role in the robbery and agreed to record a conversation with the second alleged accomplice, Tyrone Dennison, 43, according to the complaint.

In that conversation, Dennison admitted his role in the robbery and complained that "Bernie told me I was gonna get $5,000, I wind up only getting two stacks," the complaint said.

Berry and Dennison both have been charged in the case and are being held in Philadelphia.

The complaint was filed last month.