the world’s dumbest criminals

The world is full of dumb criminals who have done the police’s job for them.
Source: Supplied

SOMETIMES the police don’t have to work that hard to catch the criminals… because the bad guys do all the work for them.

Forget everything you’ve heard about criminal masterminds who devise elaborate plots to beat security systems and evade capture, those sorts of bad guys are usually the products of Hollywood movies.

A large chunk of crime, in Australia and around the world, is opportunistic – acts into which very little thought has gone.

It shows in this lot — from the Queensland man whose fraud was discovered after he publicly admitted how he really damaged his property, to a New Zealand murderer who told his friends what he’d done, to the Colombian who robbed an internet Cafe at gunpoint… but couldn’t resist checking Facebook while he was there.

1. YOUTUBE “CONFESSION”

This really is unbelievable. Within hours of committing a Texas robbery, Hannah Sebata posted on YouTube a video of herself with bundles of cash.

On the video she boasted of doing the robbery and stealing a car, as well as smoking cannabis. The video got thousands of views and she was quickly arrested, although police did insist they tracked her down after receiving multiple calls from people who recognised her from a picture they had circulated.

Hannah Sebata robbed a bank and then boasted about it on YouTube.
Source: Supplied

2. INTERNET ROBBER

A group of Colombian robbers set their sights on an internet cafe in the city of Calima, casually walking in and sitting down prepared to be genuine customers. They then revealed their true intentions when they pulled out guns and cleaned out the cash register. While all that was happening, El Tiempo newspaper reported, one couldn’t resist checking his Facebook account and left it open.

Police found his address and met him at home, where they arrested him.

If you’re going to rob an internet cafe, don’t log into Facebook while you’re there.
Source: Supplied

3. BURGLAR “BUTT DIALS” POLICE

Ever accidentally called someone on your mobile phone? It can certainly be awkward.

None more so than last year when Ohio man Douglas Wolaver accidentally placed a call to 911 – as he broke into a home. The dispatcher, fearing the call was being made by someone in trouble, directed police to the home where they found a shattered window.

Wolaver had reportedly hidden by this point but once again his phone gave him away – its low battery beeping from his back pocket led officers right to him.

Douglas Wolaver “butt dialled” police while he was carrying out a burglary.
Source: Supplied

4. THE FRAUDSTER WHOSE PEN GAVE HIM AWAY

Queensland man Lex Adams claimed tens-of-thousands of dollars in Government handouts because he claimed his boat washed away in the disastrous 2011 floods.

Only problem is that it didn’t. He wrecked the uninsured boat on a sandbar off Townsville in 2010.

That didn’t stop him applying for the funds, though, and he eventually got almost $60,000 in crisis money.

Unfortunately for Mr Adams, he wrote about what REALLY happened in a sailing magazine.

“The boat was uninsured and a total loss. I don’t know what I am going to do now … That’s life, I suppose. Just keep trying and keep your dreams in sight!”

The judge told him he “blatantly rorted” the funds and had shown no remorse and sentenced Adams to three-and-a-half years’ jail to be suspended after 12 months.

Lex Adams wrongly claimed money meant to be for flood victims.
Source: Supplied

5. THE KILLER WHO COULDN’T KEEP QUIET

Homicide detectives say the perfect crime is when no one sees you do it and you don’t tell anyone. A surprising number of killers, possibly acting out of stress or even overwhelming guilt, actually do confess to loved ones what they’ve done.

Brad Callaghan, a New Zealand engineer, went to great lengths to cover up killing his former partner — dismembering her, burying the remains in secluded bush, leaving a false trail for police and sending texts from her phone pretending to be her.

Only problem is he also told several people exactly what he did, even pointing one to where the remains were in the back of his car.

Police interviewed the friends who told them everything and eventually Callaghan told police where the burial site was.

Brad Callaghan pleaded guilty to a brutal murder after telling several friends exactly what he did.
Source: Supplied

6. THE TEEN ROBBER WHO APPLIED FOR A JOB USING HIS REAL NAME

You would think if you were going to commit a robbery you would just get in and get out.

Not Cody Conner though who, according to a police summary, demanded at gunpoint money from a sex shop worker.

The quick-thinking clerk asked him what he was doing it for and was told he needed money to help his grandparents out. She offered to help him get a job at the store and he filled out an application form using his real name.

He didn’t get a job at the shop that sells sexy lingerie… but he did get arrested.

Cody Conner went into a store with agun and ended up filling out a job application, using his real name.
Source: Supplied

7. THE MAN WHO FORGOT TO HANG UP

A judge in West Australia said the case of James Patrick Bermingham reminded him of the world’s dumbest criminals. It’s easy to see why.

His court was told how Bermingham dialled 000 after a friend of his was assaulted by another man.

Bermingham called police but then forgot to hang up and was recorded planning revenge, the ABC reported.

He and others used a cricket bat to smash windows of the man’s house. Police arrived and arrested him. He was placed on a community-based sentence and had to pay a quarter of the repair bill.

Literally telling the police he was going to assault someone, by not hanging up the phone, reminded a WA judge of the world’s dumbest criminals.
Source: Supplied

8. THE INTRUDER WHO CALLED POLICE

An intruder in Portland, Oregon called police and outed himself as an intruder because he was fearful of his safety.

The intruder, named by police as Timothy James Chapek, was in the bathroom having a shower (probably his first mistake), CNN reported, when the homeowner returned.

Chapek was confronted by the homeowner and his two dogs so Chapek, fearing the homeowner had a gun, called 911 himself, explained everything and asked for help. Awkward.

Timothy James Chapek broke into a house and was confronted by a homeowner he thought had a gun.
Source: Supplied

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Cyberstalkers, revenge-porn creeps, and other tales from the World Wide Hate …

California Attorney General Kamala Harris had exhilaration in her eyes as she publicly announced in late 2013 that her eCrime Unit finally had shut down one of the most notorious revenge-porn websites in the world. The men charged were innocent unless proved guilty in court, but the website of stolen, pornographic and debasing photographs was something no one should have to endure, she said.

The website was considered so disgusting and destructive that a couple of detectives in two different countries had begged me not to mention its web address for fear of further humiliating and endangering the women whose naked photos had been posted by vindictive ex-lovers or “friends.”

Eventually, the police pulled the plug on the site, but what I saw before that happened is hard to forget: thousands of photographs — more than 10,000 it turns out — of women, teens, and underage girls captured in revealing positions never meant for prying eyes; of youthful drunken group sex; and of confident women in revealing lingerie whose partners would one day turn their personal information and photographs over to strangers as part of their hateful revenge campaigns. I cried the first time I found the site, plastered with the smiling, unsuspecting faces of girls and women, along with desperate pleas for mercy from the victims and their families alike.

“PLEASE HELP! I am scared for my life! People are calling my workplace, and they obtained that information through this site! I did not give permission for anyone to put up those pictures or my personal information. I have contacted the police, but those pictures need to come down! Please!” reads one post, which is now entered as evidence in an extortion case.

In another message posted to the now defunct website, a new husband begs the owner to show a semblance of humanity for his devastated wife. When her nude photograph — taken years earlier at a party — was posted, he said she lost her teaching job, which also hurt her students, who loved her. They fled their community after locals turned against them. (No word on what happened to the two naked men in the candid photograph.)

Revenge-porn victims around the world no doubt rejoiced when they heard Kevin Christopher Bollaert, a 27-year-old San Diego man, had been arrested in connection with the site. In court documents, police alleged Bollaert had set up a callous criminal scheme to capitalize on men’s desire to humiliate or harm women. Internet technology makes it easy for the angry, the vindictive, the mentally ill, and the intoxicated to shatter lives. There are many more sites online that routinely post stolen intimate photographs and videos, often of underage girls, but this particular site had an additional grim twist, police say.

He posed as a ‘good guy’ running a scrub website; in exchange for hundreds of dollars, he removed the very same photographs he’d solicited and posted

Bollaert allegedly got help from family and friends to set up the extortion website, through which he asked for images, but also personal details of the victims: full names, ages, addresses, telephone numbers, and social media accounts, which, police say, he then made public. The scheme was to allegedly get other people to join in the harassment and tormenting of the targets. The more people harassed and stalked the victims, the greater the odds that they’d unwittingly turn to Bollaert. Why? Because he’d allegedly also set up a sister website, called changemyreputation.com. There, police say he posed as a “good guy” running a scrub website; in exchange for hundreds of dollars, he removed the very same photographs he’d solicited and posted. Police shut that one down, too.

Pleas for help from the women, like the ones that made me cry, were also entered into evidence by the California prosecutor: “I have gone to the police, I’ve had a restraining order put in place because of this site [and] my phone has been going off EVERY 2 MINUTES with strange men sending inappropriate things to me.”

Another woman posted: “It’s disgusting. Also, I’ve had to … have a sexual harassment charge put in place in court because of this. I don’t know what gets you off about ruining people’s lives, but I was underaged in the photos posted of me so, yes, you are showing child pornography.”

In the media, Harris announced 31 felony counts against Bollaert, and made it clear that she was on the warpath for more arrests. But minutes after Bollaert’s arrest flashed across the newswires, I checked the notorious site; it was “parked” on the French server, Gandi. So, it was still there, lying low, on standby. The website’s documentation shows Bollaert appears to have used his own name when registering both websites in 2012, and that he’d applied to the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a site trademark.

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It’s remarkable that Melissa Nester will even talk about the last few years of her life spent in the Web net of an adult cyberstalker who cost her the career she loved, all her money, and the sense of security that comes from growing up in a privileged American family. Ironically, all Nester had wanted to do was share her good fortune with a woman in need. “No good deed goes unpunished, right,” she says when I reach her by telephone in northern California.

Nester’s nightmare began when the divorced mother of two, who at the time was working at a charity fundraiser, joined an online forum where women shared tips about kids, food, books, love, and life. “Mary” quickly came to the group’s attention. “She was kicked out on the street, had no money, said that she was starving, that she has no jewellery. She had these pets that were her only thing keeping her alive that she loves so much, and that her husband would beat her … and basically she might as well end it.”

Nester and other forum members stepped up, sending Mary cash and gifts, beginning in 2010. Nester’s court documents show she spent thousands of dollars to help, even renewing the woman’s American Automobile Association membership when she called from the road in a panic.

The group wanted to put the spotlight on Mary’s plight, so Nester offered to create a short video to show what was happening. Within a few minutes of meeting Mary, however, Nester — who has a doctorate in psychology — says she knew something was “off.” By the time the interview was over, she feared Mary was a woman in need of psychiatric help, not a starring role in a documentary.

“How could I have made such a mistake?” she recalls thinking. “There were hygiene and mental-health issues, and probably drugs, because her teeth were really bad. She hadn’t showered and smelled bad.” Nester’s stomach sank as she began to suspect she’d been conned by a woman with serious borderline personality disorder. She kept her word, though, and finished the shoot before quickly heading home with the crew.

Mary created dozens of websites, falsely accusing Nester of being a sex addict who slept with married men and stalked the celebrities she met through her fundraising work

Then, all hell broke loose. Mary called demanding money and control of the documentary film, which by then was most certainly not going to happen. Nester offered her all the footage for free, and told her, “I can’t give you any more money. You need to get help.” Mary’s response, she says, was swift: “ ‘You pay up or I’m going to ruin you.’ ” When Nester refused to be blackmailed, Mary kept her word.

Within less than a month, and continuing for some two years after, Mary, and whoever helped her, created fake email addresses and dozens of websites, including one called AnotherHollywoodCockroach.com,” on which Nester was falsely accused of being a prostitute, a drug pusher, and a sex addict who slept with married men and stalked the celebrities she met through her fundraising work. Multiple websites and fake social media accounts sprang up, littered with more false accusations: that Nester was impersonating a psychologist, and that she was “a slut” who was writing bizarre sex notes that included details of waxing pubic hair and other intimacies.

Since online posts are public and permanent, and most websites are loathe to censor “free speech,” Nester wound up with no job, no credibility, and an ongoing public shunning. “It was horrific. You could tell some people either believed it all, or concluded I must have done something to attract all the negative attention, when nothing could be farther from the truth.”

American researchers such as San Diego State University professors Brian H. Spitzberg, Gregory Hoobler and William R. Cupach report that stalking victims suffer “elevated levels of fear, anxiety, insomnia, post-traumatic stress syndrome, depression, distrust, paranoia, frustration, helplessness, and physical injury,” in part because of the sheer length of abuse. Nester says she experienced all of those reactions.

Since her cyberstalker seemed violent, and Nester was living alone with her two children, she had an alarm system installed and bought a gun. The police told her they were helpless against the ongoing stalking, so she spent $50,000 to hire a private investigator and a “reputation defender.”

On the hunt then for a new job, Nester was relieved when a Catholic charity wanted to hire her immediately after the interview. “I got the call that they wanted to give me an offer and they were really excited and could I come in?” Soon after, says Nester, the phone rang again and the same woman was apologetic: “I’m sorry, we Googled your name.”

Fighting frustration and building panic, Nester says she told the charity executive, “I’m so sorry. That’s all untrue. I have a woman who’s cyberstalking me and I’m in the middle of a lawsuit and, hopefully, that will all be gone soon.” The charity didn’t want to take the risk of it being targeted, too, a risk that proved to be real.

National Post

Excerpted from Extreme Mean. © 2014 Paula Todd. Published by Signal Books, which is a division of Random House of Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

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