Movie stars getting in trouble with the law is nothing new. They’re people, just like you and me, which means they’re just as likely to have minor run-ins with the cops. A certain percentage of them will have greater troubles, just like a certain percentage of the public. Sometimes, however, you still end up being surprised. This will likely be one of those of those times. The kid from The Flight of the Navigator just tried to rob a bank in Canada. I am confident that is a sentence you never expected to read.
There are several reasons why reading this probably shocks you. The first is that it’s highly unlikely that you have given much thought to Disney’s The Flight of the Navigator since that one time you re-watched it on The Disney Channel circa 1990 or so. Secondly, when former child stars get in trouble, it usually involves drinking too much and running from the police, not bank robbery. Yet, that’s exactly what happened to Deleriyes Joe Cramer, known as Joey Cramer in the late 1980’s, who according to the Coast Reporter, has been charged with robbery and disguise with the intent to commit an indictable offence, along with other lesser charges. On April 28, Cramer allegedly walked into the Scotiabank on Teredo Street in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, wearing a shoulder-length wig, bandana, and dark jacket and proceeded to hold it up. He fled the scene with an undisclosed amount of cash. Apparently, the disguise wasn’t very good, however, as officers recognized Cramer due to his previous run-ins with the law.
In 1986 Joey Cramer starred in Disney’s Flight of the Navigator, a family film about a young boy who is abducted by a sentient alien spaceship and then returned eight years in the future, but without having aged a day. The boy and the spacecraft then escape custody together and go on something of a road trip. The spaceship was voiced by Pee-Wee Herman himself, Paul Reubens. Hey, has Sarah Jessica Parker ever gone to jail? She might want to watch out. This movie may have some sort of curse attached.
Being a child actor is not easy. While several performers have been able to successfully make the transition to adults, just as many, if not more, have run into serious problems as they’ve grown up. Such appears to be the case with one child star you probably haven’t thought about in a very long time.
