A Dreamboat's Not-So-Pretty Criminal History

JUNE 20--After being caught stealing from a sporting goods store, Jeremy Meeks, the fetching felon who has captured America’s heart, fled the business and had to be pepper-sprayed by security guards whom Meeks threatened to assault, according to court records detailing the 2005 incident.

After being collared, Meeks identified himself to Spokane, Washington cops as Emery Meeks, his older brother. Meeks apparently did this since he was already on parole from a prior grand larceny conviction in California (for which he was sentenced to two years in state prison).

Meeks, investigators reported, swiped a “package of pellets” from a Spokane store and bolted when approached by a security guard outside the business. When Meeks was eventually cornered, he told workers he would “fuck you all up…mess you up,” according to a police affidavit.

Pictured at right, Meeks was subsequently charged with theft, resisting arrest, forgery, and identity theft (for masquerading as his brother). He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor forgery count for which he served 71 days in jail.

Meeks, who dropped out of high school after tenth grade, is now locked up in Stockton, California on a variety of felony weapons and gang-related charges. Police have identified him as a member of the Northside Gangster Crips (hence the “NC” neck tattoo seen in the mug shot heard ‘round the world).

Meeks, currently locked up in lieu of 900,000 bail, was arrested Wednesday morning after he and other men departed a Stockton home that police were preparing to raid pursuant to a search warrant.

For those fans fantasizing about reaching out and touching Meeks, they will have to settle for imagining the imprisoned gangster’s fingers touching them. This might help. (3 pages)