#8 - Dillian Thompson and Dorian Walker-Gaines
In January of 2015, a pair of Texas men in their early 20’s stole an iPad, a laptop, and $5,000 in
cash from an unlocked truck parked outside a home in River Oaks, a residential community in Houston.
The suspects, later identified as Dillian Thompson and Dorian Walker-Gaines, reportedly brought the
stolen items to a nearby Burger King to celebrate. In a video they subsequently
filmed on the pilfered iPad, the young men dubbed themselves “The Money Team” and openly displayed
the cash they’d taken from the vehicle, which was later determined to have been owned by a man named
Randy Schaefer. The recording, which was automatically uploaded to Schaefer’s iCloud,
was obtained by a friend of the victim’s, who posted a picture of the burglars on social media.
The photos immediately went viral online, and local police were ultimately able to use them
to identify Thompson and Walker-Gaines as the perpetrators of the theft. In late January,
they were both arrested and charged in connection to the incident. The following month,
the 2 thieves, whose celebratory selfies had unwittingly given the police everything they
needed to catch them, were sentenced to 5 years of community supervision in lieu of jail time.
#7 - The DeWitt Township Crime Spree
A pair of Michigan teenagers accused of taking part in a crime spree that spanned
multiple counties were arrested on the morning of April the 25th of 2018. According to the Lansing
State Journal, the suspects had broken into the homes of several residents in the Cadgewith Farms
retirement community in DeWitt Township. As was later detailed by the local Police Chief,
the teens “preyed on the elderly”, who were “their favorite targets” for home invasions. On April the
12th, they allegedly stole a gun out of a vehicle that was parked in the community. That same night,
while residents were sleeping, they broke into 3 homes and took various items, including a
cell phone. One of the suspects, an unnamed 18-year-old, reportedly used the phone they’d
stolen to take selfies, which the authorities were able to use to track him down to a home in
Lansing. In the early hours of April the 25th, officers who’d been staking out the retirement
community for about 2 weeks spotted the teenagers in a stolen car. A high-speed chase subsequently
ensued through the community’s circular drive, but the 18-year-old eventually lost control of
the vehicle and swerved into a ditch. The teens were then arrested for the thefts, and also
reportedly faced criminal charges in connection to unrelated larcenies in Ingham and Easton counties.
#6 - Dean Smith
On April the 15th of 2014, 27-year-old Dean Smith walked into a Barclays Bank in
the Welsh town of Treorchy in order to inform the staff that he’d changed his home address.
While he was interacting with the employees at the branch, Smith reportedly noticed
tills full of cash and promptly devised a plan to rob the very bank where he was already a customer.
Only 30 minutes after initially departing from the branch, Smith returned and demanded money,
armed with a bread knife and wearing a hooded jacket, sunglasses, and socks over his shoes. The
paltry disguise did little to conceal his identity from the bank tellers, who immediately recognized
him from his earlier visit and pressed the panic button, raising an alarm that automatically
notified local authorities of the situation. Smith fled the scene empty-handed, and was later
taken into police custody at the address he’d just relayed to the bank’s employees that same day. In
his subsequent interviews with investigators, the failed bank robber expressed contrition for his
actions, which he called “stupid”, but indicated that he was desperate for money. During a trial at
Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court the following month, Smith pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and
carrying a bladed weapon and was consequently sentenced to 2 and a half years behind bars.
#5 - The Salmor Bike Crash
During a cycling event held on the Canary Island of El Hierro on October the 23rd of 2021,
a competitor was knocked to the ground by an oblivious female spectator who’d wandered onto
the course. The incident occurred near the finish line of the 54-mile race,
known as the Cicloturista Condaca Salmor Bike event. As was captured on cell phone footage
taken by other nearby spectators, the unnamed male cyclist had been nearing the end of the course
when the woman inexplicably walked into the road. The video, which promptly went viral online in
the incident’s aftermath, showed the fan looking down at her phone as she attempted to cross over
to the other side of the street. She unwittingly moved directly into the oncoming cyclist’s path,
triggering a violent collision that reportedly cost him a first-place finish in the competition.
Medical personnel already present at the scene treated the woman for “non-serious” injuries. The
cyclist was said to have suffered “a moderate head injury and memory loss” as a consequence of the
crash, and he was taken to a nearby hospital for more intensive treatment. As of the latest updates
on the case, the police in El Hierro had launched an official investigation into the matter.
#4 - Eonie Jones
On the night of December the 12th of 2021, 3 women were captured on surveillance footage
robbing The Beauty Plug supply shop in Tamarac, Florida. One of the suspects was carrying an
infant child throughout the commission of the crime while another appeared to have been
pregnant. The women stole several items, including multiple wigs, and
sprayed mace at an employee, who was later revealed to be the shop owner’s daughter.
Tamarac police reviewed the security video taken from the night of the incident, whereupon they
were able to positively identify 18-year-old Eonie Jones as the individual who’d pepper sprayed the
store worker. Local authorities had little trouble tracking down the identities of the thieves,
largely due to the fact that they had made no effort to conceal themselves from the surveillance
cameras positioned throughout the shop. Jones, having been charged with robbery with a weapon,
was held in custody on a $25,000 bond. Court records indicated that she also faced
15 additional charges stemming from separate cases still pending in Broward County court.
#3 - Shannon Csapilla
A blonde vandal from Stamford, Connecticut was arrested in August of 2015 after
misspelling the word “whore” in the taunting message she’d keyed into her friend’s car.
According to subsequent reports, the suspect, identified as 20-year-old Shannon Csapilla,
had targeted her friend’s vehicle after growing suspicious that she’d been carrying on an affair
with her ex-boyfriend. Investigators later detailed how a car belonging to Csapilla’s
former partner had also been keyed, and both of the defaced vehicles reportedly had their tires
slashed. When initially questioned by Stamford police, Csapilla was thoroughly uncooperative.
However, the authorities were eventually able to collect enough evidence to arrest the young
woman after she allegedly sent damning Snapchat messages to her ex-boyfriend in which she alluded
to her involvement in the vandalism incidents. When the details of the case emerged online,
particularly regarding the misspelled insult, many were quick to label Csapilla as a “dumb blonde” in
keeping with derogatory stereotypes about the supposed unintelligence of people with blonde
hair. Upon being taken into custody, Csapilla was charged with 2 counts of criminal mischief.
#2 - Chastity Hopson
In an effort to crack down on drug possession in Burnet County, Texas, the Granite Shoals Police
Department uploaded a fake news alert to their Facebook page on March the 22nd of 2016. The hoax
social media post, which reportedly garnered 1,290 shares and more than 200 comments, suggested that
supplies of certain illegal substances in the region of Central Texas could have potentially
been contaminated with Ebola. The savvy police department thus urged the public to take any
drugs in their possession to their local police station or sheriff’s office so that they could be
screened using a special device. The fake news story was punctuated with the warning, “DO NOT
use [the drugs] until [they have] been properly checked for Ebola contamination!” Although the
vast majority of the population wasn’t fooled by Granite Shoals Police’s rather blatant attempt
to catch unsuspecting drug users, one unwitting individual took their cautionary
advice very seriously. Two days after the post was initially uploaded to Facebook,
officers encountered 29-year-old Chastity Hopson after receiving reports of a suspicious person
wandering the streets. She reportedly had a small amount of illegal substances in her possession
and asked the police to test it, concerned that her stash of drugs might have been tainted by
the deadly virus. The department subsequently announced that they’d heard from their “first
concerned citizen”, and had “gladly taken the item for further testing”. Shortly thereafter,
Hopson was arrested and charged with possession of less than one gram of a controlled substance.
#1 - Lukasz Chojnowski
Following a 5-day sightseeing vacation in the summer of 2014, an elderly couple returned to
their home in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England to find a strange man in their bed.
The intruder, later identified as 28-year-old Lukasz Chojnowski, had reportedly spent the
previous 2 days inside the home, during which time he’d tidied up the house, washed his clothes,
gone grocery shopping, and cooked himself multiple meals. Chojnowski would later tell investigators
that he’d been evicted from his own residence and had broken into the couple’s house through an
open rear window, believing it to be “derelict” and unoccupied. Upon returning home at around
midnight on July the 14th, the homeowners, named as Martin Holtby and Pat Dyson,
immediately suspected that someone had broken in because their delivered newspapers had been taken
inside and neatly stacked. Shortly thereafter, Holtby came upon Chojnowski asleep in the master
bedroom and shouted at him to leave. The young man, who reportedly spoke very little English,
simply cowered beneath the bed sheets until the couple dialed 999 and the police were dispatched
to the scene. In the wake of the incident, Chojnowski was given the nickname “Goldilocks”
in reference to the 19th century British fairy tale in which 3 bears return to their forest
home to find a woman sleeping in their beds. The man ultimately pleaded guilty to burglary charges,
and was consequently ordered to serve 2 years of probation and pay more than $200 in fines.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather find out your bank had accidentally put your
money in someone else’s account or be evicted because your name was misspelled on your lease?
Let us know in the comments section below!