Tip prompts Mich. police dig under driveway in hunt for Hoffa

A media frenzy that emerged on Wednesday based on speculation that former Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa was buried under the driveway of a Metro Detroit home ignored a simple fact laid out by the city’s Police Chief Jim Berlin: “We don’t believe it is Jimmy Hoffa.”

As the suppositions grew, the Roseville, Mich. police chief said Wednesday night that the man who has emerged with a story about seeing a plastic-wrapped body being buried at the Florida Street home in 1975 seems “credible.”

But that does not mean the man’s assertion that the body may have been that of Hoffa — who disappeared on July 30, 1975 — is correct.

“The time frame doesn’t add up,” Berlin explained. “He said it was right around the same time he saw reports about Hoffa (disappearing) on the news. But we don’t believe there is a connection.”

The police chief would not elaborate but he also said he would not be surprised if there is no body buried at the property, which is located about a block away from the Police Department.

Hoffa, who served time in prison for conspiracy and jury tampering, disappeared from the parking lot of the former Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Township — a posh suburban community north of Detroit — after having dinner with two figures with ties to organized crime. He was eventually declared dead in 1982, but his remains were never found, sparking one of the great American mysteries of the past four decades.

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