This Year’s Costumed-Criminal Stories

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Every year some number of wiseass criminals commit crimes in costume for Halloween. This year at least one of them robbed two banks on October 31, dressed as a witch.

The woman, who has apparently not yet been apprehended, robbed a bank in Olympia, Washington, wearing a shiny purple witch hat, a cloak and a long blonde wig. A teller gave her some money, and a dye pack, which exploded as the woman was running from the bank, causing her to drop the money and her hat. Less than an hour later, the same woman robbed a bank in nearby Lacey, Washington, obviously sans hat but, according to police, based on witness descriptions "it looks like the same lady."

Meanwhile, a vampire flagged down a motorist on a dark and lonely country road in West Virginia, asking for a ride. The motorist stopped, because why would you not stop for someone dressed as a vampire on a dark and lonely country road? It was a female vampire, which may have made the difference. But just after she got in the car, a demon allegedly jumped onto the hood. The demon was in fact 32-year-old Roy Wade Caplinger (and knowing that really takes all the eerieness out of the previous sentence), the husband of the vampire, Angela Caplinger. The two had apparently gotten into an argument at a Halloween party and the vampire was trying to get a ride home.

Anyway, seeing Roy the Demon leap out of the darkness and onto the hood frightened the driver, who sped off, flinging Roy to the ground (although I like to imagine that he hung on, just for a little while). "Imagine you’re sitting on this dark roadway, you have a hysterical woman beside you, and the devil jumps on your hood," said a police spokesman. (Mister, you just described about half of my high school dates, but let’s not get into that.) Police later saw Roy walking near the site of the incident and arrested him. He was treated and released, and then taken to the local jail, still in costume. Sadly, according to the local sheriff, "officers removed two demon horns from his head before taking his booking photo."

AP via MyWay.com