10 - The Training Center
Six criminals picked one of the worst spots to plan a kidnapping—right next to an NYPD
training center.
A group of six men found their 19-year-old victim by offering to buy his car via the
Facebook marketplace.
They told him to meet at New Utrecht Avenue and 72nd Street in Bensonhurst, New York.
When the victim arrived, our group of dumb criminals sprang into action.
They blindfolded him and called his cousin, demanding $100,000 in ransom money.
The resourceful cousin realized he could track the victim's location and quickly located
his phone at Floyd Bennett Field, nearby the NYPD training facility.
Officers were alerted and rushed to the area.
They arrested six men, and the victim only sustained a minor injury to his stomach.
It sounds like those trainees got an early taste of real-world police work.
9 - Dirk the Penguin
Two Welsh tourists were on a working holiday in Queensland, Australia, when they got the
crazy idea to break into SeaWorld and steal an unlikely pet: a penguin.
But Rhys Owen Jones and Keri Mules did more than steal a penguin—they also swam with
dolphins and released a fire extinguisher into a shark enclosure, which could have done
severe harm to them and the sharks!
After getting drunk at a beach party, they broke into the park with a teenage Australian
accomplice.
They stole a seven-year-old fairy penguin named Dirk from the aquarium and brought him
back to their apartment.
The duo woke up hungover and tried to take care of Dirk by feeding and showering him.
They released him into a canal when they realized they didn't know how to take care of a penguin.
Locals saw them release the penguin and called the police.
Dirk was rescued and reunited with his partner, Peaches, at SeaWorld.
Jones and Mules wrote letters of apology to SeaWorld and the Australian public for their
actions.
They insisted they meant to harm.
Still, they were fined 1,000 Australian dollars each.
8 - The Good Side
When Donald "Chip" Pugh saw his mugshot posted online, he decided he could do better.
So, he sent the police a selfie with the caption, quote, "Here is a better photo—that one
is terrible."
Police wanted Chip for failing to appear in court in Lima, Ohio, for a DUI charge.
They also suspected him of some vandalism and arson cases.
In a Facebook post made by local police requesting tips on Chip's whereabouts, the police uploaded
his old mugshot in addition to his new selfie.
If Chip wanted that selfie to make the rounds, he certainly got his wish.
Chip was no stranger to trouble.
His previous encounters with police involved charges of disorderly conduct, breaking and
entering, and violence.
Chip wasn't worried about missing his court date.
In fact, he thought he could go at his convenience.
He told the local radio show "Two Tons of Fun" that there would only be a three-day
penalty when he decided to turn himself in.
The Escambia County Sheriff's Office in Century, Florida, finally caught up with him in January
2016.
7 - The Return
A routine return at Walmart turned into a counterfeit case and physical altercation
when employees discovered a sheet of fake money left inside a broken printer.
Jarad Carr brought his broken printer to a Walmart in Lake Hallie, Wisconsin but forgot
to bring his receipt.
Employees rejected the return because Carr couldn't prove he bought the item at Walmart.
He refused to leave until the return was accepted and employed some aggressive negotiation tactics
with customer service.
When Walmart workers inspected the printer and found pages of counterfeit $100 bills
jammed inside, they called the police.
Carr refused arrest, and for a good reason.
When the police finally got him under control, they found more fake money in his pockets.
He was charged with attempted theft by fraud, forgery, and resisting arrest.
6 - The Pooper
The Indianapolis suburb of Fishers faced an interesting crime spree in the summer of 2021.
Someone kept pooping on their lawns—sometimes three or four times in a single morning.
"The pooper" would drop feces on neighborhood lawns every few days and leave a trail of
dirty toilet paper behind.
Three or four lawns fell victim to the poop problem every week.
The pooper was also active in the summer of 2020.
Citizens narrowed it down to a female jogger who couldn't make it home in time for number
2.
Angry neighbors talked about how runners need to plan for having to go during a long-distance
run.
Others suggested she should at least bring a plastic bag to pick up after herself as
owners do for their dogs.
A doorbell camera finally caught her in the act, and police arrested her shortly after.
The police didn't share her identity.
However, they tried to end the rumors of who it could be by ruling out two innocent names
the locals spread around the neighborhood.
Police also encouraged the pooper to seek professional help.
She may face charges in the future.
Still, her situation is hardly unique.
In 2018, a woman in Connecticut was charged with a misdemeanor for breaching the peace
after pooping three separate times in a cul-de-sac a few miles from her home.
She blamed it on lactose intolerance.
2018 was a busy year for pooping bandits.
The "Poo Jogger" of Brisbane, Australia, was arrested after people photographed him going
number 2 in public.
He was a 64-year-old former corporate boss whose public indecency shocked the Australian
people.
In 2017, a Colorado Springs family was victimized by a woman called "The Mad Pooper."
For weeks, the offender left her droppings on their property, even though she was caught
and asked to stop.
Unfortunately, the children were the first to see the "Mad Pooper" in the act.
They saw her squatting with her pants around her ankles and quickly ran to their mother.
Mom came outside and confronted the pooper, assuming pure embarrassment would keep the
Mad Pooper from returning.
She was wrong.
The Mad Pooper kept coming back and leaving her dirty toilet paper behind.
At one point, the Mad Pooper defecated on the sidewalk in front of their home at least
once a week for seven weeks.
Finally, the mother got a photo of the Mad Pooper running away.
She posted fliers around the neighborhood addressed to "the female jogger that continuously
uses our walkway as her toilet," pleading for her to stop.
Nothing worked, even after seeing the Mad Pooper run past the sign several times.
The family got so fed up that they went to the Colorado Springs police department.
They said the woman could face indecent exposure and public defecation charges.
The weird part is that there are plenty of bathrooms in the neighborhood, including porta-potties
and a gas station.
The Mad Pooper had a long list of victims on the block, including the local Walgreens
and the backyards of several other families.
Once the story made local news, the Mad Pooper went into hiding, never to poop again… well,
at least not on someone's lawn.
5 - The Teeth
In Mirfield, United Kingdom, a serial burglar left behind a key identifier after stealing
some popsicles and a crate of beer.
A few days after the victim, Steven Pickles, discovered someone had broken into his home,
he found the offender's dentures next to the freezer.
Pickles alerted the police, who traced the fake teeth to a man named Justin Stansfield.
Stansfield already had a lengthy criminal record of arrests and burglaries.
He was a drug user and an alcoholic, always hunting for beer or things he could sell to
pay for his habit.
One previous burglary included disturbing a sleeping homeowner who then beat him with
a walking stick.
Since Stansfield was so drunk when he broke into Pickles's home, he didn't remember leaving
his teeth behind or the rest of what happened that night.
He could remember drinking a beer at the scene and removing his dentures to enjoy a popsicle.
For his idiotic crime, Stansfield got 16 months in jail.
4 - The Facebook Account
A rookie criminal threw himself under the bus when he forgot to log off his Facebook
account after breaking into the home of James Wood.
Nicholas Wig broke into the house in St. Paul, Minnesota, and took his sweet time enjoying
the family's belongings.
He used the computer to check his Facebook and then forgot to sign out, which gave away
his identity and any chance of getting away with the crime.
The thief ran away with Wood's credit cards, cash, and watch but left his jeans, Nike sneakers,
and belt behind.
It had been raining outside, so detectives assumed Wig took his wet clothes off to enjoy
some computer time in the victim's house.
Wood came home and realized someone had robbed him and that the suspect had left his Facebook
open on his computer.
He made his own Facebook post saying that Wig burglarized his home and listed his phone
number to send any tips on the suspect.
Then, Wig reached out to Wood, asking to meet.
He thought that if he returned Wood's belongings, he would get his clothes back, and this whole
thing would go away.
He was wrong.
When Wood saw Wig approaching, he immediately called the police.
The cops arrested Wig for breaking into Woods' home.
He faced up to ten years in prison and $20,000 in fines.
While news of his actual sentencing faded into obscurity, Wig will go down in history
as the dumb burglar who needed to check his Facebook.
Is his story more about the clumsy actions of a petty thief or the grip social media
truly has on some people?
3 - The Video Game
Clint Butler was on the run after escaping British jail in November 2020.
He had already served 14 years of a 17-year sentence for robbery and weapons possession.
The fugitive was wanted for months before being caught by police in Birmingham.
Butler decided to venture into town that day because he was bored during the Covid lockdown.
All he wanted was the new Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War video game.
Butler and a friend noticed police in the distance.
They turned around rather suspiciously, causing police to chase after them.
When the police caught up with them, Butler gave a fake name and said they were in town
to buy Call of Duty.
He also admitted to carrying marijuana.
Police were about to run his phony name through the database when Butler went into a violent
craze and attacked the cops.
Police restrained him, put him in handcuffs, and called for backup from nearby officers.
Butler is now back in jail with an extra two years added to his sentence for breaking out
of jail and assaulting police officers.
At least he has a few years of new Call of Duty games to look forward to when he's out.
2 - The Tip Jar
Gabrielle Canales and her friends riding in the back of an Uber thought they could get
away with stealing from her driver's tip jar.
Little did they know that they were being recorded the whole time.
A dashboard camera caught Canales reaching into the hard-working driver's tip jar while
making eye contact with the camera.
The video went viral, and she faced several threats for her behavior.
Gabrielle apologized publicly and returned the five dollars she stole.
But nobody forgave her.
She received tons of Internet backlash, and she had to make several public apologies until
the story faded from the headlines.
Was stealing $5 from an Uber driver worth landing on the wrong side of internet fame?
We imagine Canales wishes she never reached her greedy hand in the tip jar.
1 - The Pee-er
Where there's a pooper, there's a pee-er.
Police in Saint Petersburg, Florida, caught a man peeing on the bumper of a marked police
car.
They apparently had him in handcuffs before he even finished the job.
David Marcel-Lewis Johnson was caught in the act on February 8, 2020, at about 1 am.
Johnson, a Detroit native, didn't cooperate with police questioning and pleaded not guilty
to disorderly conduct for urinating in public.
After a family member paid his $250 bond for the misdemeanor charge, the police let him
go.
The moral of the story?
If you're going to pee on a car, don't pee on a cop car, especially not with actual cops
inside.
Click to watch one of these next videos!
Let us know in the comment section what you would rather do: Go to jail for a week or
pay a $5,000 fine to skip it!