Chad's News

This one is absolutely mind-numbing in the amount of stupidity shown. A man burglarized a house, used the victim’s computer to log in to Facebook, and didn’t log out. The homeowner posted his phone number on the burglar’s Facebook page, in the hopes that someone who knew the burglar would contact him. Instead, the burglar himself texted the homeowner and arranged to meet so he could pick up some clothing he’d left in the house. He actually showed up, so the homeowner called the police and the burglar was arrested.

Link: http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/…
(via Kim Komando)

In a post-9/11 world, attempting to hijack a plane, for any reason, is not the most intelligent thing to do. Yet six men did just that on a flight in China. They were overcome by the passengers and crew, with two of the hijackers later dying from their injuries. (Note that there is some disagreement about whether or not this was an actual hijack attempt.)

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/…
(via The Daily Caller)

Samuel Kioskli, a man who worked for an ATM servicing company, was arrested on charges of stealing $200,000 from the ATMs his company managed. What qualifies this for the coveted Chad’s News “stupid criminals” status is that (1) he allegedly replaced the stolen money with photocopied forgeries, thus quickly bringing attention to the crime as angry customers called the bank, and (2) he was under video surveillance at the time.

Link: http://www.sfgate.com/…
(via Slashdot)

A New York man, Philip A. Contos, was motorcycle riding without a helmet as part of a protest against state helmet laws. He had an accident, hit his head on the pavement, and died. State troopers say he most likely would have survived if he’d been wearing a helmet.

Link: http://dailycaller.com/…

A man named Rodney Knight broke in to the home of Washington Post journalist Marc Fisher and stole two laptops, $400 in cash, and a winter coat. That alone does not qualify him for the coveted Chad’s News “stupid criminal” tag. What does qualify him is that, using one of the stolen laptops, he posted a picture of himself (with the coat and cash) on the Facebook page of Fisher’s son. Knight has been sentenced to 44 months in jail for the burglary and an unrelated charge of carrying a pistol without a license.

Link: http://www.theregister.co.uk/…
(via Neatorama)

A 20-year old man named John Winkler was being transported in the back seat of a police car on Interstate 25 in Colorado. He managed to free himself from the seat belt, open the door, and jump out of the car while it was traveling at 60 mph. He was still handcuffed with his arms behind his back. He did not survive the escape attempt.

Link: http://www.denverpost.com/…

A man in New Westminster, British Columbia walked into a Starbucks and allegedly attempted to rob it—while two uniformed police officers were waiting in line.

Link: http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/…
(via Neatorama)

Hoping to skip the long lines at the bank, two would-be robbers called ahead, declared their intention to rob the bank, and told the bank to have their money ready when they arrived. Ten minutes later they showed up at the bank, performed the robbery, and were promptly arrested in the parking lot by waiting police.

Link: http://www.truecrimereport.com/…

A teenage burgler broke in to a furniture store office in Kennewick, Washington, but instead of doing a quick smash-and-grab, he decided to use the office computer for some personal web surfing. This left enough evidence for police to identify him.

Link: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/…
(via The Consumerist)

From the article: “In retrospect, going on the “Dr. Phil” television show to talk about their shoplifting exploits did not … work very well for Matthew and Nora Eaton.”

Link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/…
(via Neatorama)

Social Networking Rule #1: don’t post photos of yourself doing stupid things. In this case, a woman named Ashley Sullivan received a stiffer criminal sentence because of pictures she posted to her Facebook page.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…

The 2009 Darwin Awards are out, and the winners are two bank robbers killed by crushing debt. Here at Chad’s News, we think one of the runner-ups (dying to go) was more deserving, but the judges were obviously swayed by the rare phenomenon of having two people remove themselves from the gene pool with a single action.

Link: http://www.darwinawards.com/
(via Neatorama)