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Derek Mothershead of the We Buy Gold store in Hendersonville, North Carolina is both tough and tidy. When he saw that a robber was armed with only a pellet gun, Mothershead took him down with a single left cross:
“When I pulled it out of his waistband I started laughing,” said Mothershead. “I said, ‘Man, you came in here with a fake gun?’”
Mothershead said he dragged the man over to a desk and held him down with one hand and called 911 with the other. [...]
“He kind of begged me, begged me to let him go,” Mothershead said. “I said, ‘You came in and tried to rob us. You’re going to jail.’”
Then, to add magnificent insult to injury, the clerk decided that the robber should find something useful to do while waiting for the police. Specifically, clean his own blood off the floor:
While they waited for police and paramedics, Mothershead gave Hendi a roll of power towels, sprayed the floor with cleaner and told him to clean up his own blood.
There’s a video of the whupping at the link.
Link -via Ace of Spades HQ
The heist went off poorly. Or exceedingly well, I suppose, depending on what the mugger was after:
An unknown man approached a 62-year-old woman as she was walking her dog just before 10 a.m. on the 100 block of Dakota. The man demanded the woman she give him everything she had, and he said that if she didn’t, he would kick her dog.
The woman handed him a bag and the suspect fled. Unbeknownst to the suspect, the bag she gave him contained her dog’s feces.
Link -via Dave Barry | Photo: Flickr user Ambernectar 13
Do you remember that coworker who was always on break? He’s now turned to crime:
Authorities say a Tampa Bay area man ordered a beer at a bar, left to rob a nearby bank then came back to finish his beer. [...]
A bartender there said Whittle ordered a beer, disappeared for about 30 minutes and then returned to his beer. Deputies say they arrested at the bar about 10 minutes after he left the bank.
Link -via Dave Barry | Photo (unrelated) by Flickr user Ty Nigh
Previously: Bank Robber Stops for Lunch Nearby
You can’t trust anyone these days. You can just innocently go about your business when suddenly some crook will rob your blind. That’s what a couple in Ogden, Utah discovered. According to police, they went into a store to engage in a bit of shoplifting. They were caught, cited by police, and then let go. The couple went back to their car and got a shock:
But as the officer started to leave, “He sees the two suspects trying to flag him down in the parking lot,” Young said, “and he goes over to their location and realizes that their vehicle has actually been burglarized.”
From a distance, surveillance video caught what appears to be a man in a red sweater scoping out Alexander’s truck and he eventually gets inside.
“They ended up having their stereo and amplifier, a drum machine and some cigarettes stolen from their vehicle,” Young said.
Link -via Dave Barry | Photo: Flickr user Guerrilla Futures/Jason Tester
A woman in Gainesville, Florida was arrested for participating in the burglary of a bagel shop. She and another person are accused of breaking in and stealing a cash register. Only twenty-five cents was inside:
In Phillips’ version of events, Harrington broke the front door window to get inside the business and then hauled the silver cash register to the car.
Link -via Dave Barry | Photo: Flickr user Deborah Fitchett
A purse snatcher in Severini, Brazil dropped his false teeth while trying to get away from the scene of his crime. Police used the dentures to confirm his identity:
The UOL Internet news portal quotes Oliveira as saying that the homeless man turned the dentures over to police and gave them a physical description matching that of de Jesus.
Oliveira told UOL on Friday that De Jesus at first denied owning the dentures, but then confessed to the crime after they fit perfectly in his partially toothless mouth.
Link -via Stuff | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user Thirteen of Clubs used under Creative Commons license
Their plan was certainly creative. The thief, a skilled contortionist, would hide inside a suitcase. An accomplice would arrange for that suitcase to be placed inside the baggage compartment of a bus traveling from Girona to Barcelona, Spain. During the hour and a half-long ride, the thief would emerge from the suitcase and rifle through the belongings of the passengers. But they got caught:
A few days later on June 3, a bus driver noticed a passenger struggling with a heavy suitcase and called in the cops. Officers opened up the bag, which they said felt unusually warm. Inside was a sweaty man, nearly 6ft tall, equipped with a headlamp, a sharp tool and a cell phone.
“They’d done their homework,” the head of the bus company Jose Luis Martinez said. “They are very large baggage compartments, with very few obstacles, where he could move around easily,” he said.
Link via First Things | Image: El Periódico
Due to his fashion choices, a beer thief in Florida got away, but not with the beer:
Surveillance video shows a man rushing from the EZ food store in Lake Wales, trying to steal two cases of beer.
But his pants were too droopy, he tripped, and the beer went everywhere.
He jumped into the back of a Chevy Malibu and the driver took off.
Link via Lowering the Bar
This doesn’t seem like a good plan for a robbery. According to a local news report, the suspect:
[...] hid the game controller in his pocket and pretended it was a gun as he tried to rob the Sun Food Store on 62nd Avenue S.
He was arrested by a police officer who walked into the store in the middle of the robbery, police said.
Talk about bad luck! If only he brought a caulk gun instead, it might have worked.
Link via Say Uncle | Photo by Flickr user aldrin_muya used under Creative Commons license
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An armed robber entered the home of 81-year old Bobby Smith. That made Mr. Smith angry, and you don’t want to make Mr. Smith angry:
The man told Smith to “gimme what you got” before shoving him to the ground and taking his wallet, according to the police report. That didn’t stop Smith, who said he “went back after him.” He grabbed the nearest weapon, while Sones grabbed for something else to give him.
“I grabbed the frying pan and hit him upside the head. I knocked his teeth out … and he went to the floor,” Smith said. “There was a pitchfork about six feet away. … I stuck him.”
Police soon caught the robber nearby. There’s a video at the link.
Link via Say Uncle | Photo: Kelly Jordan/Times-Union
It seems everyone is familiar with the dangers of drug-resistant staph infections and well aware of just how scary they are. As it turns out, they are so terrifying that a woman recently robbed a convienance store using the staph infection on her arm as a weapon.
When a worker confronted her, prosecutors said Slusher showed her Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus-infected arm to the attendant, told him to stay away and then left the store.
She was later arrested and hopefully held in a cell away from the other prisoners.
Link Image via mtsofan [Flickr]
It wasn’t her fight; it wasn’t her store. But when four men in Northampton, UK, tried to smash their way into a jewelry store with sledgehammers, an old woman with a purse decided to put an end to their thievery:
Four men are being held by police after a gang of crash-helmeted robbers wielding sledgehammers was put to flight by a pensioner who attacked them with a handbag.
Video footage of the attempted robbery at a jeweller’s in Northampton town centre showed the unlikely have-a-go-hero crossing a road and jogging briskly towards the six-strong mob as they smashed the shop’s windows.
The raiders, who had arrived at the scene on three scooters, drove away just moments after the red-coated pensioner, thought to be aged in her 70s, began lashing out at them with a large black handbag.
A man in Silver Spring, Maryland, is under arrest for multiple burglaries. Police caught him because he left his cell phone charging in one home as he robbed it:
Police say that Wilkins’s home lost power in the storm and that he needed a place – anyplace, it seems – to charge his phone. In his haste to flee, he left it charging.
Link via Geekologie | Photo (unrelated) by Flickr user Debs used under Creative Commons license
A suspect in fourteen robberies in the Columbia, South Carolina, area was finally caught after he suffered a major victim selection failure. A convenience store clerk responded to his demands for cash by pulling out a samurai sword and chasing him:
Investigators say the clerk pulled out a samurai sword and chased Vinson out of the store into the parking lot. After a scuffle, authorities say the clerk made an attempt to corner Vinson, but the suspect was able to get away.
A K-9 deputy later sniffed out Vinson’s location. Authorities say they found him hiding in some bushes at an apartment complex. Lott says it was the courageous act of that store clerk that helped to bring Vinson to justice.
And not “dough” as in the slang term for money, but actual pizza dough:
According to court papers, LaRosa and an accomplice followed the owners of Brothers Pizzeria on Staten Island. After donning masks, the papers say, they pointed guns and demanded the men turn over a bag they believed held the day’s proceeds.
But instead, the bag was full of pizza dough.
Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user Jeff Kubina used under Creative Commons license
This video shows a man in Turkey jumping out of a motorcycle’s sidecar and onto a moving truck. He steals one of the sheep in the back. What do you think: real or staged?
via Nerdcore
A man was arrested and charged with trying to rob a food store in Manchester, New Hampshire. He was unsuccessful because one customer beat him with a nearby squash:
The market’s owner said Cullen came in, displayed a threatening note, and verbally told her, “Give me your money, or you’re going to die.”
The owner said one of her neighbors walked in and she told him she was being robbed.
He sprung into action, forcing Cullen to the ground, as the store owner called police.
Witnesses said Cullen tried to get away but another man delivering food to the market picked up a large squash and used the fruit to hit Cullen over the head.
Link via Say Uncle | Photo (unrelated) by Flickr user La Grande Farmers’ Market used under Creative Commons license
If you’re going to rob a bank, it’s a good idea to have your plan thought all the way through before starting:
Taxi driver James Anderson tells the Missoulian newspaper the man was acting strangely when he picked him up at a Missoula coffee shop.
He says the man first asked to be taken to the University of Montana campus, but couldn’t give Anderson a specific location. The man then asked to be taken to a hotel, but not before stopping to buy cigarettes.
The cab fare was $7.50, and Anderson says the man tipped him $5 as they arrived at the hotel. Officers then pulled up and surrounded the taxi with guns drawn.
Link | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user emilydickinsonridesabmx used under Creative Commons license
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The would-be robber used a bottle of salad dressing as an improvised weapon. The storekeeper responded by pulling out a gun:
DeLand police said a teenager threatened to shoot a store owner Friday when he robbed a convenience store, but he didn’t show a gun.
More than a hour later, the 16-year-old went to another business — and that time there was a gun. But it was in the hand of the store owner, who pulled his weapon after the DeLand High School student grabbed a bottle of salad dressing off the shelf and threatened him with it.[...]
Police said the teen acted boldly when he approached the counter with the bottle of salad dressing over his head. But when the owner pointed his gun at him, the teen said: “OK, I’ll get out.” As he walked out the door, a responding police officer apprehended and arrested him.
Link via Say Uncle | Photo (unrelated) by Flickr user Richard Faulder used under Creative Commons license
Someone in Australia has robbed over $10,000 worth of cucumbers in eleven separate robberies over the last three months.The latest robbery of 50 bags of pickles is the largest of the heists so far.
“The issue with the cucumber is how do you and I tell who owns a different cucumber?,” SA Police Chief Inspector Kym Zander told ABC Radio on Wednesday.
“We’re having difficulty establishing where they (the cucumbers) are going.”
What do you think? How can they track down the cucumber thief?
