Crazy mistakes that lead to getting busted for crimes

A news report this month caught our eye. Not because the crime was so unusual, but because of the way one of the alleged crooks got caught. It was an armed robbery at a Phoenix business by three individuals who, based upon the account we read, appeared to know what they were doing.

Police say the trio entered the store, one went to the back and immediately disabled the security system. Another of the men forced the two employees to the ground with a gun, where both were zip-tied. The men then fled with over $15,000. It looked like a clean get-away. Unfortunately, one of the robbers left his cell phone at the scene, and . . . well, you can guess the rest.

If you think this was the dumbest mistake by a criminal you’d be off by a longshot. Here are just a few examples:

  • A man in Athens, Georgia entered a convenience store intending to rob it. His cover story to stay in the store until another customer left is that he wanted to fill out a job application. When the other customer left, the man went behind the counter, held a knife to the cashier’s side, and walked out with the money that had been in the register. Unfortunately, he had filled out the application with his real name and a relative’s phone number. Finding him was not a problem for the police!
  • A Canadian woman told a police constable that her house was broken into and jewelry was taken. During the investigation, she took a phone call and explained to the caller in French that the story was a fake. She didn’t count on the fact that the constable, who was apparently of Indian descent, spoke several languages, including French.
  • A Florida man tried to burn down his neighbor’s trailer by throwing a Molotov cocktail at the other man’s home. But the winds shifted, and the flames ended up burning down the man’s own trailer.
  • A North Carolina woman, dissatisfied with the quality of crack cocaine she had just bought, complained about the purchase to a local cop. She was, not surprisingly, arrested for drug possession.

We could go on, but you get the idea.

The Feldman Law Firm PLLC
1 E. Washington Street
Phoenix, AZ 85004
(602) 540-7887

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