NBA Player Allegedly Finds Person Trapped Inside Cage in Car, FBI Involved

By Ross Kelly August 18, 2018 at 8:29am

“The J.J. Redick Podcast” has become one of the most entertaining and informative athlete podcasts as the NBA player details his life on and off the court.

But on Thursday, Redick shared a story that was disturbing and uncomfortable, and it had nothing to do with basketball.

Redick, entering his second season with the Philadelphia 76ers, lives in Brooklyn, New York, even during the season. He did a photo shoot for a men’s fashion company in the borough and then rode with his wife and his wife’s twin sister back home in a vehicle provided by the company.

When Redick entered the vehicle, he sensed a foul smell, but his sister-in-law, Kylee, noticed something else. According to Redick, she was as “pale as a ghost” when she saw someone under a blanket in the trunk of the vehicle, which wasn’t walled off from the backseat.

“There’s a person in the back,” Kylee whispered to Redick.

“What? There’s a body in the back?” Redick replied.

“No, there’s a person in the back,” Kylee whispered.

Redick looked over his shoulder into the trunk, and he saw a blanket covering a cage or box. He then asked the driver to pull over. When Redick got out of the car, he noticed the blanket was moving.

Here is his description of what happened next:

“I’m like, ‘Sir, I think there’s a person in your backseat.’ And so he lifts the blanket up, but like towards the window, so that the blanket is facing up, so we couldn’t see, because we were on the sidewalk — perpendicular to the car, not behind the car. And he’s like, ‘No, there’s nothing in here. There’s nothing in here.’ And he closes the blanket back. And then he closes the trunk. And as he’s walking around to the front seat, a head pops up.”

While this may seem like a scene from some comedy movie, this was no joke, and Redick relayed that to his podcast guest, Orlando Magic rookie Mo Bamba.

“No, this is not funny,” Redick said to Bamba after the rookie laughed at the visual. “There’s the back of a female’s head. She has blonde hair. There’s a ponytail. And based on the size of the box or cage that this person is in, it’s either a very small human or a child. And I’m like, ‘We all saw it, right?’ So, he drives off.”

The driver took off with Redick and his family still on the sidewalk. The trio then called the car agency and the police to report what they saw.

“I was very explicit that he was harboring some sort of female under a blanket in a cage or a box in his trunk,” Redick said, adding that his wife contacted the FBI to open up a claim.

Redick said the car agency “acted like I didn’t know what I was talking about.” He later received an email from the agency saying the driver has been suspended because “there was someone in his front seat” even though Redick explicitly told them what he saw in the trunk.

Redick tried to come up with some theory as to what was going on and hoped that things weren’t as bad as they looked.

“Best case for everyone involved is that maybe his sister or his cousin, or maybe a girlfriend or wife needed a ride across town, and they didn’t want to pay for an Uber or a taxi. That’s probably best case scenario,” Redick said. “From there you can go darker. And this is not funny, but like child abduction, human trafficking?”

Redick also responded on Twitter to other possible theories presented to him.

https://twitter.com/JJRedick/status/1030122680576618497

Redick averaged a career high of 17.1 points per game last season as the 76ers posted their most wins (52) since the 2000-01 season. The 34-year-old will return to the team on a one-year, $12.5 million deal.

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