Movies can make difficult things look easy,
but don’t be fooled, that often doesn’t translate well when you try it in real life. Take daring elaborate robberies we all love
watching on screen for example: very very few criminals can actually pull off a crime
that smoothly. Most just end up like the people on this list. Ready to see them? Let’s get it on! Encountering an armed gang of bike riding
jewel thieves smashing into your store with sledgehammers has got to be a terrifying moment. These people probably wished they had a huge
bodyguard to help them, but all they actually needed was this 71-year-old gran with a handbag. She’s genuinely like a superhero, taking
on a whole gang of huge armed men with no protection at all. And she turned out to be seriously effective,
5 of the thieves were caught and one fell off his bike in fear, which is a bonus point. And they were all filmed, so they can’t
even lie about who took them down. These guys looked like they had the right
“all guns blazing” approach to robbery that would mean they could get away with the
ATM they were stealing, but all they really managed to do was back their truck through
a glass door. Then one of them locked themself out of the
truck, there was a lot of driving backward and forward, and they got away with only the
front panel of the machine and none of the money. After all that fumbling, the initially bold
approach doesn’t really have the same impact. If you’re going to be a horrible human being
and commit a horrible crime like hitting someone over the head with a rock and running away
with their stuff, you better avoid doing anything that people can make fun of you for. The cops and their dogs cornered the man while
he climbed back over the spiked fence at their request, but I bet he intended to make a run
for it. Luckily, he couldn’t, because he got his
jeans caught on the fence and had no choice but to make the cops’ lives easy and hang
around until he was arrested. Rule number one when pulling off a bank job
is to avoid anything that might identify you - some robbers even make sure to disguise
their voice. This guy has obviously never seen a movie
because he showed up with a uniquely branded truck to steal this ATM. He also looked straight at the camera, couldn’t
break into the building, and then forgot to actually attach the chain he’d put around
the ATM to the truck to pull it out. It’s so badly executed I’m not even sure
he can be charged with a crime. This wannabe thief needs to get hold of this
CCTV footage because he might not be any good at stealing, but he could get cast as the
next great slapstick star. This whole mini-play is just perfect. First, he walks in front of the cameras, then
thinks he can step back and nobody will be able to recognise him because he’s put a
stocking over his head - which he produced by magic. Then he throws something at the window, it
doesn’t break, so he panics and falls over again and again! It’s an absolute classic if ever I saw one. You would think that people are aware that
there’s always a camera on them wherever they go, but obviously not. After all, if this guy knew there was a camera
watching him, would he have thought it was a good idea to dance this badly on someone’s
porch? Probably not. Then again, maybe he did realise he was being
watched and that’s why he decided to just steal the packages as well, even though the
price of his car clearly shows he doesn’t need to steal - after all, in for a penny… Stealing $7 million worth of jewellery isn’t
easy - it requires a lot of preparation, perfect execution, and perfect acting skills. This woman didn’t have any of those things. Instead, she entered this jewellery store
and pretty much instantly gave herself away by acting all nervous and shaking. Then she performed a poorly executed switch
of the envelope with the jewels in it, and the owner promptly locked her in the store
vault while police were called. All she could do after that was panic on her
own in the vault before getting arrested, making this the least impressive diamond heist
of all time. One of the first rules of pulling off a successful
crime is to choose your target wisely. With that in mind, this guy obviously isn’t
the most successful criminal. Frankly, he couldn’t have picked a worse
target. He must’ve thought he was safe because he
was stealing from a girl, but this girl just happened to be a martial arts instructor. He realised his mistake pretty quickly though
- mainly because she had her arm around his neck before he’d even realised what happened. She got her phone back obviously, and he was
lucky that she took mercy on him and didn’t use him as a punching bag. You might remember something similar to this
from school: maybe a teacher caught someone passing notes and the kid opted to eat the
paper rather than hand it over. Well this is almost like that, but this thief
was swallowing a diamond ring instead of paper. He clearly panicked when he realised he was
locked in the store holding a $3,500 stolen ring. Swallowing it didn’t help him though: X-rays
exist these days. It would’ve saved a lot of trouble if he’d
just handed it over, because all swallowing it got him was an extra charge for falsifying
evidence and an embarrassing encounter with police when they retrieved the ring. Criminals who get away with their crimes know
that it’s always in their own interest to commit those crimes in places that are familiar
to them. This shoplifter is here to demonstrate why
that principle holds true. He’s stolen whatever it is that he wanted
and made a run for it, but he’s in a mall that he’s not familiar with. Unfortunately, the part he’s not familiar
with is how the door works. One creative but surefire way to get yourself
caught is to run straight into a window and concuss yourself. He knows that now. In Singapore, residents leave their shoes
in racks outside their apartment. That seems foreign to us, but it’s just
normal there, so they don’t expect opportunistic criminals to use the racks for free shopping
sprees, but that’s exactly what these girls decided to do, but they clearly haven’t
cased the joint as proper criminals say. They make a run for it when one hears a noise,
but it’s not over - a few minutes later, one girl’s back, checking if it’s safe
for her friend to come over. It takes her an embarrassingly long time to
notice the camera - bit late to cover your face now! If you’re robbing someone, people already
dislike you so preparation is key - after all, you don’t want to make a mistake that
will give all those people who don’t like you a reason to mock you. Like let’s say, you forget your mask and
have to wear a bucket on your head instead. That’s the perfect kind of idiot move for
people to have a good laugh at. So it’s a good thing we all have this thieving
bucket head or we would’ve had one less thing to laugh about today. There’s criminal behaviour, and then there
are signs that someone’s seriously messed up. In this case, I’m not talking about this
man’s choice of costume for executing this robbery, or his brazen selection of the items
he wanted to steal, or even the fact that he was stealing from a charity. This man’s real crime is that he left a
half-eaten donut on the counter. What kind of madman leaves a donut midway
through? I’ve never witnessed such a terrible crime
pulled off without any attempt by the criminal to hide their identity from the frankly huge
number of cameras. Criminals usually opt for lightweight latex
masks when stealing from someone, so a huge mascot-style Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
mask is clearly a bold choice. This robbery of an animal feed business did
happen just before Christmas though, so it was very festive. But it turns out there’s a reason for the
usual choice of mask, because this burglar quickly got annoyed by her huge Reindeer head
and took it off. Then she looked straight at the security camera. Theft isn’t really in the festive spirit
anyway, she could’ve lost the costume and made her life so much easier. Sometimes it pays to take a step back and
think outside the box. After all, for every robber in the
movies, there’s a crafty cop hot on their heels. A store owner was tired of getting broken
into, so he decided to design a trap worthy of any
Hollywood script. The would be burglar is funnelled
into a room and trapped. Pick a door, any door – it doesn’t matter,
because none of them can be opened! As the door closes behind him, you get a real
sense of his panic. No matter what he
tries he’s trapped – just like a rat in a cage. He batters the doors for an hour, breaking
his hammer in the process, before police finally
arrive. Luckily the store owner was kind enough to
leave a tap in the trap room – trying to escape is thirsty work. [2]
