Man charged with hiding gun in New York hotel lobby

NEW YORK, April 23 (UPI) -- A North Carolina man faces criminal charges for allegedly hiding his gun under a seat in a hotel lobby near the World Trade Center Memorial in New York.

Bobby Glen Jackson, 59, waived extradition after his arrest Saturday, The Fayetteville Observer reported. He was transported to New York Monday.

Police used security videotapes to trace Jackson after a woman found the gun after sitting on it on April 15 at the World Trade Center Hotel, The New York Times reported. These included tapes showing a man in the hotel lobby and a man who looked the same asking employees at the World Trade Center Memorial if off-duty law enforcement officers could bring weapons into the site.

The gun was discovered around the same time bombs went off at the Boston Marathon.

While Jackson appears to have owned the gun legally, bringing it to New York was a violation of local law. He is also charged with reckless endangerment for leaving it in a public place, police said.

A relative told the Times Jackson has a gun because he runs a pressure-washing and security business. The relative said Jackson and his wife were chaperoning their daughter on a school trip.

The Observer said Jackson, a former general manager for the Fayetteville Guard arena football team, was charged several years ago with impersonating a police officer after he allegedly told a couple who saw him in back of an apartment building that he was assisting a police operation. The charges were dropped.