Instant Karma is always welcome as long as you are not on the receiving end of her punishment. The most interesting recipients of Lady Karma’s angry side are dumb criminals. You would expect criminals to plan and execute perfect crimes because their lives depend on it but sometimes, they do the exact opposite. Whether it is mistakes or just karma at work, some crimes turn out so badly that you have to feel sorry for the criminal. Here are interesting instances from around the world when a crime was paid back on the spot.
Don’t Forget Automatic locks
The police are supposed to save car owners from car thieves, but in January 2020, West Midlands Police in the UK were forced to save a car thief that locked himself inside the very car he was trying to steal. The Ford was installed with automatic locks (probably meant to keep kids inside), which he didn’t seem to notice while he installed fake plates on the parked car.
He got trapped inside the car and attracted a small crowd while he struggled to get out. When the police came, they identified that the plates were fake and that the trapped man was actually the would-be thief. The police were forced to smash the glass to get the trapped thief out. He was arrested, this time, to be trapped in a police cell.
Don’t Run Me Over
Drunk drivers are good at hitting people and other things, but this one managed to run himself over. The entire incident was caught on the police dashcam, making it the most hilarious news in the US in 2018. In March 2018, the police in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia were chasing a drunk driver who was endangering lives. The drunk driver swerved into a residential area and into a Starbucks parking lot, which had a No Exit sign that he didn’t seem to notice.
The driver came to a dead-end and was forced to jump out of his car and run on foot, except when he jumped out of the car, it didn’t stop. He got hit by his own car while trying to run away from the police making him the first driver to be run over by his own car. He was promptly arrested for DUI and also faced charges for the damage his car caused when it failed to stop.
Run Away Carefully
In April 2018, Zachary Moko, a resident of Montgomery and a member of the then famous Montgomery Hittsquad, was recorded on camera robbing a passenger on a bus. He had snatched the victim’s wallet and managed to fight free after the victim tore his shirt off him in the fight. While running away, the bareback robber got hit by a car. He still managed to run away with his injuries, but he needed a hospital and was arrested in The Suburban Hospital a short while later while seeking treatment for the injuries he sustained. The jury just took two hours to convict him to 15 years in prison for his crimes.
Alligator Snack
When you break into houses in Florida, you need to be sure that there are no alligators in nearby lakes and ponds; That is if you are going to hide in one while on the run. The victim, in this case, was Mathew Riggins, who was spotted by neighbours while trying to break into homes in Barefoot Bay. The police interrupted his mission as they arrived with K9s and a helicopter forcing him to run and hide in Barefoot Bay pond.
He had called his girlfriend to tell her that he would be laying low, but that was sadly the last contact he had with anyone. Part of his body was discovered in the pond ten days later, being guarded by an alligator that had already eaten part of him. The tragedy extended to the poor alligator as well since it had to be euthanized for the rest of Riggins’ remains to be retrieved.
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Stealing Fuel From The Wrong Tank
Fuel siphoning from tour buses is an easy catch for many fuel thieves, but you have to be careful since the cap to the fuel tank is right there next to the sewage tank. Fuel thieves in Laverton, Western Australia, got more than they bargained for when they tried to siphon fuel from a parked tour bus in 2016.
They inserted their hose in the sewage tank instead of the fuel tank, and it had a rather hilarious ending. They abandoned the mission after getting what the police called a “foul taste in the mouth,” but that doesn’t mean the police would let it go. The police said they would still pursue charges against the would-be thieves and bring them to book.
Don’t Forget Your License Plates
An Illinois couple made news in 2012 when they were forced by a court to pay a cyclist who they injured in a hit and run. The wife was driving at the time of the incident when she ran through a stop sign hitting a 23-year-old cyclist in the process. The couple, however, left the injured cyclist to his own fate and sped away, but they forgot something else behind; Their license plates. When the police arrived, the plates were presented as evidence leading to the quick arrest of the heartless driver and her husband. They were forced to pay eleven times of the medical bills incurred to the victim as compensation.
The Perfect Mugshot
When you see a mugshot of you on the police wanted list, you should probably consider going on the run rather than troll the police over the quality of the mugshot. Donald Chip Pugh was wanted by the police in Lima, Ohio, so the police posted a mugshot from an earlier arrest on Facebook.
Pugh replied to the post with a selfie of himself with a comment saying, “here is a better photo, that one is terrible.” He continued taunting the police by calling a local radio station, saying he couldn’t accept the first mugshot because it made him look like “Thundercat or James Brown on the run.” The publicity that accompanied his post sped up his arrest, which came a few days later in Escambia, Florida.
Just Hang In There
The residents of the Pioneer Square building were fed up with frequent break-ins by robbers, but in February 2015, they caught one; Or at least he caught himself. The robber was caught trying to break the laundry machines for money then he decided to run into an open room, jump through a vent, then into an air duct. That was a bad idea because he made lots of noise waking everyone. Things got worse as he got trapped in the air duct.
Now the robber couldn’t be arrested as he is the one that needed saving. He was running out of air. “I can’t breathe!” he cried. One of the residents told him to “hang in there.” The angry residents still called firefighters and the police to come and rescue him, a courtesy he wouldn’t have given them.
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Don’t mind my age
Gregory McCallum, who was only 24 in 2009, made news when he attempted to rob the retired boxer, Frank Corti, at his home in Oxford, England. It is not clear whether McCallum knew whom he was going against, but it was obviously a terrible idea. Corti caught up with him when he broke into the home.
McCallum swung his knife at the 72-year-old, but the former boxer used his skills to disarm him and punch him square in the face. It only took a few more punches for the 24-year old burglar to surrender. Corti pinned him down and called the police, who later released a mugshot of the burglar with a messed-up face. He still got 18 months behind bars for his crime.
The Sneaky Pistol
Now to Tucuman, Argentina, where a robber brandishing a loaded revolver got the worst of Karma in June 2019. The robber, Federico Luis Acosta, was robbing a shop disguised using a white helmet. Video footage showed him scaring a customer while taking money from the shop attendant.
However, while putting his revolver back in his trousers, Acosta accidentally set off the gun, shooting himself in the groin. He dropped his loot and staggered out of the shop in pain, but he only made it a few blocks away before collapsing from the bleeding. The police took him to the hospital, but sadly, he didn’t make it.