Photo: Madison County Jail
An Alabama man deserves the prize for the world’s dumbest criminal this week, together with an added bonus for the state’s most reckless parent in a while.
Travis Sasser, 27, from Huntsville, Alabama, parked his car outside a local Walmart and went inside with the intention to steal something, Lt. Michael Johnson of the Huntsville Police Department tells NBC affiliate WSFA 12 News. With him was his 2-year-old son, whom he left inside the unlocked vehicle, without air conditioning and no windows rolled down.
After about an hour at the Walmart, Sasser stole a blender and rushed out the fire escape. In his attempt to flee before cops arrived, he lost his car keys. He got to the vehicle, which he’d left unlocked, threw the blender inside and closed the door, which automatically locked the car.
Because he had his child inside and thinking he’d locked the keys in there, he called the police for help. We told you he wasn’t a smart criminal; imagine the laughs the officers could have shared had not the safety of a child been at risk.
“We got a 911 call about child in an unattended vehicle and when we arrived, the 911 caller was the guardian of the child and he was also a shoplifting suspect from Walmart,” Lt. Johnson says.
Cops broke one of the windows of the car to rescue the boy; he wasn’t hurt. Sasser was charged with domestic violence – reckless endangerment and theft of property, and he’s looking at some time behind bars considering he has violent priors.
What’s more shocking for the police is not the fact that the dude basically called the cops on himself, but that he would risk a child’s life over a blender.
“The child had been left in the car intentionally the entire time he was in the store. No air conditioning, the windows were up. All this was over a $259 blender out of the store,” Lt. Johnson says. He urges civilians who notice children or pets in distress, alone in parked cars, to call the police without intervening.
After about an hour at the Walmart, Sasser stole a blender and rushed out the fire escape. In his attempt to flee before cops arrived, he lost his car keys. He got to the vehicle, which he’d left unlocked, threw the blender inside and closed the door, which automatically locked the car.
Because he had his child inside and thinking he’d locked the keys in there, he called the police for help. We told you he wasn’t a smart criminal; imagine the laughs the officers could have shared had not the safety of a child been at risk.
“We got a 911 call about child in an unattended vehicle and when we arrived, the 911 caller was the guardian of the child and he was also a shoplifting suspect from Walmart,” Lt. Johnson says.
Cops broke one of the windows of the car to rescue the boy; he wasn’t hurt. Sasser was charged with domestic violence – reckless endangerment and theft of property, and he’s looking at some time behind bars considering he has violent priors.
What’s more shocking for the police is not the fact that the dude basically called the cops on himself, but that he would risk a child’s life over a blender.
“The child had been left in the car intentionally the entire time he was in the store. No air conditioning, the windows were up. All this was over a $259 blender out of the store,” Lt. Johnson says. He urges civilians who notice children or pets in distress, alone in parked cars, to call the police without intervening.
Google News