Saturday, August 25, 2007

Crime for Dummies, Springfield, Missouri, Style


This morning’s Springfield News Leader had a twofer too good not to blog about, both stories having to do with dumb criminals.

Dumb Criminal #1
Wednesday the local media was aflutter with reports that an unidentified man was pulled from a sinkhole after being trapped for over 24 hours. I had wondered how he ended up there. Was he out for a walk, and you know, nature called and whoops, where’d that sinkhole come from? But then, today I read where he was involved the following night in a police standoff, which ended with him being arrested for possession of a firearm. Turns out the reason he ended up in the sinkhole to begin with was that he was running from the cops who had a search warrant they were trying to execute when he wandered off a trail and fell into the sinkhole. Ah, justice prevails.

Dumb Criminal #2
Cab driver gets a request to take a man to Camdenton from Springfield, Missouri, which is about an hour and a half drive. Cabbie tells the man it’s going cost $150. The man calls back later and says he has the money. Cabbie picks up the man who says he needs to stop at the bank “to cash a check.” They stop at the bank; the man robs the bank and the cabbie and robber head on their way. Cabbie keeps cool and tries to figure out what to do next. After all, he really doesn’t know if the man has a gun or not. As they are nearing the heavily patrolled I-44 onramp, the cabbie is hoping a cop will tag him for speeding, and indeed a cop stops the cabbie, who is quoted as saying to the robber, “He’s going to give me a speeding ticket. I’ll take care of it.” Cabbie tells the police who his passenger is, and well, justice prevails. Turns out the robber is a convicted bank robber with a long record.

According to the News Leader, cabbie returns to the bank because “I wanted to apologize for bringing a robber to my bank.”

14 comments:

Rick Rockhill said...

Sheila- these are GREAT. Turth is stranger than fiction.

Anonymous said...

I thought stuff like that only happened in Alabama. ;-)

Sarge Charlie said...

right, truth is stranger than fiction, these guys were losers to start with..

Sheila said...

Yep, these bumblers made my day. And Jay, we have our share of dull knifes too.

Anonymous said...

I love it! Talk about poetic justice...

Nicole said...

LOL Thanks for the great laugh this morning. How funny is all that.

I tell ya, stupid criminals make for some fine reading material!

Jackie said...

Thanks for that LOL.

Sheila said...

Joe,
Yes, it is poetic justice, which can be a good as the real stuff.

Nicole,
Glad you stopped by. It made my day yesterday. Thank goodness we can still make fun of criminals without having to be politically correct.

Jackie,
Happy to oblige and hope your vacation was wonderful.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Palm Springs Savant--

What's "turth?"

Marshamlow said...

Thanks Shelia, you gave me a good laugh.

Marion said...

These are great, Sheila...a good laugh!

Sheila said...

Happy to.

Anonymous said...

LOL! That is funny! I live in good ole' Jefferson City Missouri, so I don't live far from Springfield. Be careful, sounds like you have some crazies down there!

Sheila said...

BL,
Oh, I'm glad to see a fellow Missourian. I'm still looking for Missouri based blogs and it's great to have discovered yours. Crazies are everywhere. It was just funny to read about two of them on the same day.