17 Amazed Police Officers Share Stories Of Their Encounters With Criminal Masterminds

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mattstaff
Apr 14, 2019 12:00 PM EDT

These criminals are criminally genius. But even their oversized brains weren't enough to get 'em out of getting caught (usually). Gotta send props to the raging fool who wolfed down his bank robbery note in a moment of panicked crisis. If this list got you going, check out our other one on cops biggest "oh shit" moments over here!

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  • 01
    Text - ismango 8h A french thief who spent 10 years in prison became a comedian when he got out. One of his stories.... Finds a building, goes in, chooses a floor and TRANSFORMS the exit door into an extra apartment. Puts the apartment number, fake lock, welcome rug, et... Puts an iPhone for sale. The person comes to buy it, he opens the door in a shower robe and says give me one second, im just gonna count the money....and poof! He's gone from the exit stairs.
    via u/ItzTacoTimee
  • 02
    Text - ethan-bubblegum-tate S 8h Working in a hom improvement store when younger. This guy came in, went to the snow blowers, took one and went to the return desk. Said he wanted to return it but had no receipt. They told him you need a receipt so he says ok l'll be back and wheels it off to car through the front door. He did this a few times apparently. Couple places even helped him load it "back" into his car.
    via u/ItzTacoTimee
  • 03
    Text - ppoonia 9h Same thing as the computer rooms, guys would cut the power to electrical stations damage the wiring then hide waiting for the cops to show up. Once the owners of the buildings came they would shut off the power because of the unsafe wiring that would have to be repaired in the morning. Everyone would leave for the night, then then would cut away all the non-powered wiring to get the copper.
    via u/ItzTacoTimee
  • 04
    Text - somejap 7h There's a golf course/country club in my town that has a PGA tournament scheduled in the next couple years. They have a guy repeatedly breaking in overnight and just lounging around and eating food, all on camera. The club refuses to report it so they don't hurt their chances of the tournament coming.
    via u/ItzTacoTimee
  • 05
    Text - SolarWattson 8h Ihave a friend who is no longer a criminal but committed crimes for about 15 years and never got arrested or even investigated. Some of his highlights. Growing weed in a shed on his neighbors property. The neighbor was old and never left the house. Buying a building under a fake name, taking out huge loans against it, getting HUD money, and burning it all down. Sold fake raffle tickets to raffle off stuff he never had and never raffled. I cant remember how many times he pu
    via u/ItzTacoTimee
  • 06
    Text - Tittypookaka 9h Probably someone who committed a crime I never solved. With that being said I had a guy use a sledge hammer to smash his way through a wall at a Best Buy and steal a bunch of phones and cameras.. he was smart enough to wear gloves and a face mask and not touch anything he didnt have to. Alarms didnt go off until he exited out the back door, which the alarm company gets after a minute or two and takes them like 3/4 minutes to call in to us, giving him a good 5 minute head s
    via u/ItzTacoTimee
  • 07
    Text - Bonesnapcall 9h Definitely this guy who ate the bank robbery note right off the hood of the police car when they were emptying his pockets. Although I'm fairly sure he was still convicted.
    via u/ItzTacoTimee

    In case you want to see the clip of that, here it is.

  • 08
    Text - keenly_disinterested 7h The story goes like this: A homeowner walks out one morning to drive to work only to find his car missing. He reports the car stolen to police. A few days later, his car is sitting back in front of his house. When he gets inside he finds a note. It was an apology that said the "thief" was in dire need of quick transportation and so he "borrowed" the first car he found with the keys inside. The writer noticed the sticker on the car for the local sports team, and jus
    via u/ItzTacoTimee
  • 09
    Text - whistleridge 7h This was in the late 90s-early 00s. A guy in my dorm came to school solely to deal drugs. He took out student loans, registered for a bunch of 300-person freshman survey courses where he would never be missed, then literally never went to class. All he did was go to raves and concerts and keggers and sell party drugs. After the first semester, he was suspended. He wrote the usual 'l was young and dumb and in over my head' sob story, and got put on probation for a semester.
    via u/ItzTacoTimee
  • 10
    Text - zerbey 9h Homeless guy in my home town figured out if he committed some act of petty theft he'd get a night in jail, a warm place to sleep and a hot meal. He'd show up, turn in his stolen goods and that would be that. After a while the police would just tell him to take back whatever he stole the next day. Quite the town character.
    via u/ItzTacoTimee
  • 11
    Text - taltalim 8h A friend of my brother moved to Israel where for a period of time it was/is acceptable to drive with an American driver's license. He was pulled over for speeding, and when asked for his license, gave the officer his Costco card (Costco is a membership-based retail warehouse in the US and a few other countries. The exchange apparently went something like this: Officer: "Costco? What is Costco?" Friend: "It's the state I'm from." Officer: "That sounds made up." Friend: "There a
    via u/ItzTacoTimee
  • 12
    Text - nivenfan 7h I heard about one person that pulled a shoplifting scam on a large, popular and well known U.S. retail store. They walked in with some cheap nylon product to get one of those "I walked in with this" stickers they used to put on returning merchandise. The sticker easily peeled off the product undamaged. They walked to the electronics department, grabbed an expensive box off the shelf and went to Customer Service. They placed the sticker on the big box and asked if they could re
    via u/ItzTacoTimee
  • 13
    Text - mieggoispreggo 8h Most of them are really stupid so this guy isn't a criminal mastermind but here goes. He wanted to rob a jewellers on our city's main street. So he found out the flat beside the jewellers was empty and he hid there. For 2 weeks he triggered the alarm on purpose several times a night, massive headache for the police and the business, we turned up to see nothing there, nothing on cameras, thought it was just a fluke so the jewellers turned off the alarm system and said the
    via u/ItzTacoTimee
  • 14
    Text - that_other_guy_ 8h One guy would print barcodes, bring them into home depot and stick them on merchandise in the $100 range. When scanned the items came up around the $10 range. Putting random barcodes on things isnt really illegal and super hard to notice. Guy two would come in an hour later and buy the underpriced stuff. Complete plausible deniability. They would then sell the stuff on Ebay. Only reason they got caught is because the guy with the barcode printer/ software cut the second
    via u/ItzTacoTimee
  • 15
    Text - JWW13 9h There was a guy with over 50 speeding charges, with the name "Prawo Jazdy." He was in a different car, with a different disguise every single time. Eventually, after the government set up a special task force to take down this guy, they realized that "Prawo Jazdy" means "drivers license" in Polish. Clarification: It was 50 different people, the police just wrote down their name as "Prawo Jazdy" every time someone with a Polish drivers license was caught speeding.
    via u/ItzTacoTimee
  • 16
    Text - Matagorda 8h A guy buys and finances a car....doesn't make a single payment, and after 90 days the repo men come looking but cant find it. Behold over 1.5 years later, a auto repair and customization shop files a "mechanics lien" on the vehicle for over 15,000 dollars of custom rims, tires, upholstery, engine work, and a completely awesome (awful) paint job. So the auto finance company is not gonna shell out 15K to get this now non desirable car. So they sign the title over to the mechani
    via u/ItzTacoTimee
  • 17
    Text - antiquecop 8h Stopped a guy at night. Willingly pulled over. Was Mr nice and had an answer for everything. Mistake was he left night vision on the dash. Which have me grounds to search. Had a perfect tool kit for high end breaks... radios to reach others in on the act... thermal suits etc. Barrister turned up to interview... offence of going equipped never stood a chance. He was released On his way out joked he hadn't been stopped in 10 years... even complimented me on being pro active an
    via u/ItzTacoTimee

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