Especially Really Dumb Criminals — Mystery Question

Patricia Bradley Mystery Question 56 Comments

Really Really Dumb Criminals; Psalm 121:1-2

Especially Really Dumb Criminals is this week’s Mystery Question. Crooks never cease to amaze me. but first the photo and Scripture verse.

This was taken as we drove from the new John the Baptist baptismal site. Around here when I think of hills, I think of tree-covered land, but when the Israelites heard the word “hills” in a psalm, this is probably what would come to mind. The green you see is date palms.

Now onto Last week’s Mystery Question–Dumbest Crimes Ever. Three actually happened and one is a figment of my imagination. Can you tell the one I made up?
  1. One criminal didn’t place very high importance on details before he decided to rob a gun store. Not when he went armed with only a baseball bat. Unfortunately for him, the manager pulled one of his guns on the would-be robber and kept him captive until authorities arrived.
  2. The bank robbery was pretty standard until the tellers asked the robber a question. His answer gave away that he was deaf. Realizing this, they sounded the alarm, and the police arrived just as he walked out the door.
  3. The second Sunday in March, a man broke into a church with the intention of robbing the ushers once they collected the money, but before they took it down to the altar. He knew the collection was taken at the end of service. Unfortunately, he’d forgotten that Daylight Savings Time had started. The church was empty except for a retired marine who was collecting bulletins left behind. The marine quickly disarmed the robber and called authorities.
  4. The robber wanted to make sure the bank had the money ready, so he phoned the bank and let them know he was coming to rob it. He intended for them to have the money ready so he could simply pick it up and be on his way. Instead, the bank employees called the police. Authorities were on hand to arrest him when he arrived with his accomplice.

And the answer is…#3. Congrats to all who answered correctly!

Now for this week’s Mystery Question–Especially Really Dumb Criminals. Three actually happened and one is a figment of my imagination. Can you tell the one I made up?
  1. As a woman made her morning coffee at 5 a.m., she noticed a light on in her guest bedroom. when she went to turn it off, she discovered a twenty-something man asleep in the bed, wearing a pair of her husband’s clothing. The man awoke and fled the scene. The homeowner immediately called police who found a pair of wet jeans on her pool deck. You guess it. He’d taken a dip in her pool and shed his clothing, forgetting his wallet was in the back pocket with his driver’s license.
  2. On a Monday at 3 p.m., a man took off with “a large amount of cash” after he slipped a stickup note to a teller at a bank in a mid-sized town. Evidently, it wasn’t enough because he was back the next morning, trying to rob it again. A teller recognized him when he walked through the door and called police. He was arrested without incident.
  3. A group of bumbling crooks was busted for allegedly forcing a victim into a car and holding him for ransom — just feet from a police training center. The would-be kidnappers called the victim’s cousin, demanding $10,000. The cousin who had an app to keep up with family members quickly located the phone and called the police, who were next door.
  4. While a man was at court talking with a judge about a charge of stealing a Porsche Carrera, parking officers were scanning license plates in the courthouse parking lot. They spotted a Lexus that had been reported stolen, so officers waited for a driver to return. Who turned out to be the man arrested for stealing the Porsche. He was arrested as he tried to drive away.
Okay Super Sleuths. Which one did I make up? Leave your answers and I’ll enter you in a drawing for a March gift card for $10!
Especially Really Dumb Criminals is this week's Mystery Question. As usual, three are true and I made up one. Can you guess which one? Leave your answer in the comments and I'll enter you in a March drawing for a $10 gift card. Share on X

And the February winner for a book from my library is…BN100!


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Comments 56

  1. Andrea

    Wow, these are all equally ridiculous. People are pretty interesting in the things they do and think they can get away with! Let’s go with #1. I really can’t decide so I just picked one!

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      Patricia Bradley

      You’d think that people did lock their doors nowadays, Priscilla, but I can’t tell you the times I’ve gotten up to discover I hadn’t locked my deck door. 😉 But I like your logic! We’ll see next week if it’s #1.

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  2. Barbara Diggs

    I’m amazed at how dumb criminals can be!
    I was going to say #1, but then remembered a similar situation when a teen entered the home where I was house sitting. He was up in the attic at 3 A.M. playing heavy metal on the stereo and looking for a pair of shoes?? I screamed and yelled at him and chased him out. I made him leave the shoes!!

    Gosh, these are hard. They’re all believable… going with #3, because it seems strange to call a cousin to ask for ransom money. The time frame, although not mentioned, seems too soon for demanding a ransom while still next to the police. But this is just a wild guess.

    That’s an incredible photo. Beautiful. I can’t recall ever seeing pure white hills like that before. Psalm 121 is also one of my favorite passages. We had it read in our wedding.

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      Patricia Bradley

      Thank you. Most of the hills in Israel look like that. It’s only where they irrigate that it’s green. Love your story about the teenager. 🙂 We’ll see next week if it’s #3. 🙂

  3. Debra Tucker

    It’s hard to chose! Crooks are “not the sharpest knife in the drawer”. I keep going back to #3 but we’ll see…

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  4. Tim Johnson

    It’s interesting that the Bible often uses hills and mountains when talking about God. At the end of that chapter, the conclusion is so comforting: “The Lord will watch over your going and your coming
    from now to eternity.”

    Dumb crooks give us so much to laugh about. They seem to think like little kids. The most unlikely story to me is #1, so I think you made that one up. Only if he thought the house was vacant would he be so bold. Good way to get himself shot.

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  5. Joy Shelden

    #4 a guest speaker was preaching on Ps. 121 at church just this past Sunday! Israel is such a beautiful place. I’d love to visit one day.

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  6. Edward Arrington

    Pat, I love that picture and verse. I can picture in my mind being in the middle of a battle there and looking to the hills and seeing the forces of God coming out to take charge of the battle. Wow!

    I am sticking with #1. The guy wasn’t just “especially really dumb” but was simply an idiot. Taking a dip in someone else’s pool, leaving his jeans with his wallet laying there, entering the home uninvited, and LEAVING THE LIGHT ON! He was begging to get caught. I would ask if there is anyone that stupid, but the other stories say YES!

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      Patricia Bradley

      I often picture these hills when I read about Elisha telling his servant to look and see the army of the LORD. 🙂 And I love your logic. We’ll see how it works next week. 😉

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  7. Lelia (Lucy) Reynolds

    #4 because I can’t believe he was that stupid. Thank you for sharing one of my favorite scriptures.

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  8. Trixi

    I’ll be different and guess #4 this week simply because I can’t tell which one is made up…lol! They all sound like something a dumb criminal would do.

    What a glorious picture! I bet you were in awe when you saw the hills and thought of John baptizing there. I know I would be!

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      Patricia Bradley

      It was an awesome feeling, Trixi. Very hard to describe. We went to EnGedi from there–that’s where King Saul chased David around a mountain. Except here in the States, we’d call it a big hill. 🙂 We’ll see next week if its #4.

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  9. L. Murphy

    Thanks so much for another great set of scenarios that gets the whole family involved in deciding which is made up! Makes for good family time. We were really divided this week, but since I’m the one who follows you, I get to cast the final vote. 🙂 Going with #2

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