Deserve To Be Caught

We have another two-fer today: Stupid Criminals.

First up, we have a man in Suffolk County, NY who tried to rob a convenience store with a gun. Unfortunately it was either a toy gun or he was totally unwilling to use it (which technically wouldn’t be unfortunate, though if you are going to rob a store at gun point you might want to be prepared to follow through). The guy approached the counter waving his gun and demanded the money in the register. Hafize Sahin, who is, by the way, about 4′5″ and 90 pounds, said:

“I thought the gun is not real. I wasn’t going to open the drawer. I said to myself, ‘I’m not going to give him money.’ I couldn’t give him the money because I thought it was the first time he was doing it.” She added, “I was yelling at him and telling him ‘Get out of here!’ I didn’t want to hit him, I just wanted him to get out.”

While the robber didn’t leave, he did go to the door to make sure no one was coming. While he was doing this Sahin pulled a 3 foot long ax from under the counter and was able to chase him off. You get to watch the video and all of her ax attack. It is kind of funny, actually.

Next up, we have a guy who stole a printer used to print driver’s licenses in Missouri. Now, I am guessing this is a pretty specialized machine, right? He also had stolen a PC with all the software on it to go with it, but unfortunately it was “locked” and he couldn’t crack it.

Being an enterprising criminal he decided to contact the maker and ask if he could purchase the drivers for the device. Now the fact that this specialized printer was stolen in the first place probably alerted the company to the possibility and danger of identity theft, so they were most likely being a little cautious. When they then got a call to purchase drivers for the exact model of printer that had been stolen that must have been a huge red flag.

A Secret Service agent listened to a recording of the conversation (I am guessing the company handed the tape over about 30 seconds after receiving the call) and recognized the voice and telephone number of the person calling this one. Making a not-so-long story just that much shorter, they apprehended the thief and he faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. With criminals like this we may be able to start scaling back the police force.