As predicted, the "disguises" employed by the Thong Bandits during their robbery of a convenience store in May did little to help them avoid arrest. Police in Arvada, Colorado, announced last Friday that Joseph Espinoza and Joaquin Rico had turned…
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has confessed to being the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, had some statements to make at his arraignment on Thursday (June 5): First, he looks forward to becoming a martyr. Second, the U.S. legal system is…
Before too long there will be enough material of this kind to create a separate category or gallery of Bad Disguises. Previous candidates would include the Duct Tape Bandit and the Tree That Robbed a Bank, and to those we…
Saying he was planning to start a record company, Charles Fuller tried to cash a large check at a bank in Fort Worth last week. Problems with this story included: One does not normally start record companies using cash; and…
The improbably named "Kasey G. Kazee," better known to history as the "Duct Tape Bandit," pleaded guilty on April 29 to robbing a Kentucky liquor store. The robbery failed despite the fact that Kazee had carefully prepared for the robbery…
A 31-year-old Estonian thief who escaped from a Finnish prison on February 29 was "recaptured" a week later, but only after going to some trouble to arrange it. It’s not entirely clear whether Martin Vaiksaar had decided he wanted to…
Act One.A small town in Oregon. Two men in "cowboy garb," Adam and Vincent, are eating doughnuts. Enter two sheriff’s deputies. DEPUTY ONE: A burglary has been reported.DEPUTY TWO: Yes, we must hurry to the scene of it.VINCENT: …
Most of us have "called in sick" at one point or another, when we probably could have dragged ourselves into the office but had other priorities. But who among us has been as creative, determined, and stupid as Daniel Kuch,…
In a classic opinion of which I have just learned, the California Court of Appeal ruled in 1998 that police were in fact justified in detaining a man they saw on a bicycle at 3:00 in the morning, primarily because…
I think we have enough failed-disguise posts now to consider starting a new category, or at least a sub-category of The Criminal Mind. This does not quite rise to the level of What Not to Use as a Disguise #1…