Tennessee:
A man successfully broke into a bank after hours and stole the bank's video
camera. While it was recording. Remotely. (That is, the videotape recorder
was located elsewhere in the bank, so he didn't get the videotape of himself
stealing the camera.)
Louisiana:
A man walked into a Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter and asked for
change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked
for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The
man took the cash from the clerk and fled-leaving the $20 bill on the counter.
The total amount of cash he got from the drawer? Fifteen dollars. (If someone
points a gun at you and gives you money, was a crime committed?)
Arkansas:
Seems this guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw
a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So
he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The
cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking
him unconscious. Seems the liquor store window was made of Plexi-Glass. The
whole event was caught on videotape.
New York:
As a female shopper exited a convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and
ran. The clerk called 911 immediately and the woman was able to give them
a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police had
apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the cruiser and drove back to the
store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for
a positive ID. To which he replied, "Yes Officer, that's her. That's the
lady I stole the purse from."
Seattle:
When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle
street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene
to find an ill man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A
police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline and
plugged his hose into the motor home's sewage tank by mistake. The owner
of the vehicle declined to press charges, saying that it was the best laugh
he'd ever had.
Newark:
A woman was reporting her car as stolen, and mentioned that there was a car
phone in it. The policeman taking the report called the phone, and told the
guy that answered that he had read the ad in the newspaper and wanted to
buy the car. They arranged to meet, and the thief was arrested.
Ann Arbor:
The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger
King in Ypsilanti, Michigan at 7:50am, flashed a gun and demanded cash. The
clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register
without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they
weren't available for breakfast. The man, frustrated, walked away.
Kentucky:
Two men tried to pull the front off a cash machine by running a chain from
the machine to the bumper of their pickup truck. Instead of pulling the front
panel off the machine, though, they pulled the bumper off their truck. Scared,
they left the scene and drove home. With the chain still attached to the
machine. With their bumper still attached to the chain. With their vehicle's
license plate still attached to the bumper.