Photo: masslive.com
A life of crime might seem like the easy way of getting by, but it’s not without its challenges. Hollywood movies aren’t this fond of the “outsmarting the police” cliché for no reason.
One car thief from Everett, Massachusetts, found this the hard way, while also winning the title of the world’s dumbest car thief (probably): he stole a woman’s car and then drove in it to a fast food joint within walking distance from where she lived. No hamburger is worth this kind of risk.
Rosemary Hughes tells WSOCTV that her mother’s Ford Taurus was always parked in her driveway. For 20 years, the mother had been leaving a spare key inside the vehicle so that neighbors could move it in the winter.
This made stealing the car easier, of course. But driving to her mother’s home and not seeing the Taurus in the driveway still came as a shock, Hughes says for the media outlet.
Little did she imagine she’d see the car sooner than expected, sooner even than the police. Days after the theft, as she was driving to work, she saw the car in traffic in the exact same neighborhood. She followed it at a safe distance and saw it pull in at a fast food joint, and a man go inside. By that time, she was already with the police on the phone.
Cops came before the man had a chance to leave the restaurant and took him in. He was charged with receiving stolen property and destruction of property, and driving without a license. The Taurus was retrieved with some damage: apparently, there was a pile of laundry in the backseat and the inside smelled strongly of marijuana.
“He's got to be a novice at this because I think if he is this dumb to know that you've got to flee with the getaway car. He should probably give up his career as a car thief,” Hughes says. “To take a car with a low license plate that could be so identifiable, and be right down the street, walking distance from where I live, and bring the car there two days later to go get a hamburger? It's weird.”
“Weird” doesn’t really cover it, does it?
Rosemary Hughes tells WSOCTV that her mother’s Ford Taurus was always parked in her driveway. For 20 years, the mother had been leaving a spare key inside the vehicle so that neighbors could move it in the winter.
This made stealing the car easier, of course. But driving to her mother’s home and not seeing the Taurus in the driveway still came as a shock, Hughes says for the media outlet.
Little did she imagine she’d see the car sooner than expected, sooner even than the police. Days after the theft, as she was driving to work, she saw the car in traffic in the exact same neighborhood. She followed it at a safe distance and saw it pull in at a fast food joint, and a man go inside. By that time, she was already with the police on the phone.
Cops came before the man had a chance to leave the restaurant and took him in. He was charged with receiving stolen property and destruction of property, and driving without a license. The Taurus was retrieved with some damage: apparently, there was a pile of laundry in the backseat and the inside smelled strongly of marijuana.
“He's got to be a novice at this because I think if he is this dumb to know that you've got to flee with the getaway car. He should probably give up his career as a car thief,” Hughes says. “To take a car with a low license plate that could be so identifiable, and be right down the street, walking distance from where I live, and bring the car there two days later to go get a hamburger? It's weird.”
“Weird” doesn’t really cover it, does it?
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