Former Super Bowl champion arrested on gun, stolen vehicle charges outside metro Atlanta Target

ATLANTA — A former Super Bowl champion was arrested on gun and stolen vehicle charges Wednesday in metro Atlanta, according to jail records.

Ricardo Lockette, 37, who played wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks when they won Super Bowl XLIX in 2014, was booked into jail in Fulton County on charges of possession of a firearm during the commission of or attempt to commit certain felonies, possession of a vehicle with altered VIN and theft by receiving stolen property. As of Thursday morning, he remained in jail without a bond.

Channel 2′s Michael Seiden obtained court documents that reveal that Georgia State Patrol was conducting surveillance outside a Chipotle near Camp Creek Marketplace when troopers noticed Lockette drive off in a 2021 Ram 1500 TRX with a suspicious tag.

State troopers and Atlanta police followed Lockette as he drove across the street to Target, where they conducted a traffic stop and determined the truck was stolen.

“The key FOB found in Mr. Lockette’s possession was for a Ram Limited, which was inconsistent with the RAM TRX he was driving,” a reporting officer wrote in the probable cause affidavit. “Further investigation revealed that the vehicle identification number displayed on the front windshield and the door jam was fraudulent.”

When investigators ran the original VIN, they determined that the truck had been reported stolen out of Atlanta on March 24, 2023 court records revealed.

Under the fake VIN, Lockette came back as the registered owner of the stolen truck that he had been driving with a suspended license.

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He was also in possession of a Glock 43 9mm pistol, according to court documents.

When officers told Lockette that he had been driving a stolen truck, the Albany, Georgia native told police that he had purchased the vehicle in 2020 during the pandemic.

“He (told us) he found the vehicle on Facebook Market but couldn’t provide a date,” a responding officer wrote in his probable cause affidavit. “He stated that he went to Columbus, GA, to purchase the vehicle from a buy here pay here dealership. Again, he couldn’t provide a date of purchase or how much he paid. He stated that he couldn’t remember if he paid cash or used the bank to purchase it. He stated that the vehicle was paid off at the time of purchase”

But when police searched the truck, they found a temporary tag that had been issued on May 3, 2023, a little more than a month after it was reported stolen, according to the arrest affidavit.

As of Thursday morning, it was unclear if Lockette had retained counsel.

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In 2011, Lockette was signed by the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted free agent. He also had brief stints with the San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bears before he returned to Seattle in 2013, where he eventually won a Super Bowl in 2014 after the Seahawks defeated the Denver Broncos 43-8 in Super Bowl XLIX. Lockette announced his retirement in 2016 after suffering a career-ending neck injury in 2015.

Lockette played football and ran track at Monroe Comprehensive High School before he took his talents to Fort Valley State University where he competed in both sports.

In 2019, the Boys & Girls Club of Albany (GA) inducted Lockette into its Hall of Fame. On its website, it says that Lockette is now a player advisor for the Harvard Football Players Health Study, a research program that aims to make the game safer and address the well-being and health of former NFL players.

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