America's Dumbest Criminals - Season 4, Episode 15 - Donut Thief - Full Episode | Forensic Files

tonight on america's dumbest criminals where does this inmate think he's going in such a hurry we don't think he's
getting off on good behavior if you were dressed like this wouldn't you be inclined to be in a hurry
and what do you need for a stakeout to catch sticky-fingered donut thieves there's a whole lot of laughs right
under your nose as we track down america's dumbest criminals [Music] wow [Music]
now welcome your hosts for abc daniel butler and debbie allen hi there daniel what are you doing out there
to do go ahead no debbie i'm bringing joy to my public all right you look like a jellyfield man to me rusty yes you are
nothing personal you understand why is it oh oh you're eating oh great don't get anything on your suit okay but why
is it that you're always eating on this show well i have to keep my energy up debbie for
me at my best for my fans and i can feel there's a whole lot of love in this room
huh that could be or it might just be the sugar buzz i understand daniel's reason
for bringing donuts a little bit later we have a story about a doughnut stakeout
but now it's time for caught on camera if i can pull daniel away from his adoring public we'll introduce our first
story daniel oh great what happened well i'm not quite sure debbie i think it was a backdrafter
rusty do i need to get out the dust buster do i need to get my dust busters please
would you all right while i'm vacuuming daniel i want you to take a look at an amazing
story a nashville tv news crew was in a perfect position to observe an inmate releasing himself from a work detail the
tape was rolling and it was caught on camera [Music] we were down there doing a story on some
sort of mysterious sonic boom so they got a lot of phone calls to the 9-1-1 center so we go down to the 9-1-1 center
well my buddy my cameraman al devine always rolling videotape we're walking out into the parking lot going to our
car and suddenly i look up and i see this jail suit running across the field i go i'll roll on this guy he's already
rolling he's on it just caught you know the last 10 or 11 seconds of it and we're going what was that about over at
the 9-1-1 center so we can tell a cop who's right there going you better get right on this man you got an escapee and
we helped catch him basically i said well what were you thinking he goes man it was just christmas time and i wanted
to see grandma get home and and you know it was like andy williams episode or something so it was really kind of
amazing [Applause] all right stop me if you've heard this one a guy goes into a bar and steals the
tip jar wins in your pocket and and and what well what's the punchline oh it's right here and something to
remember me by [Music] we were dispatched to a theft at a local restaurant we talked to the owner and he
said somebody had stolen a tip jar off of his counter he said that a subject had come in
ask for an application and that was his reason for being there while he was filling out the application
the owner was walking around doing the work in the store and when he went in the back the guy grabbed the tip jar off
the counter and ran out the front door we got there we looked at the application he was filling out
it had the name of one of our local people that we always arrest for petty thefts and things like that
so come to find out he put all his correct information on the application so we just went to his house picked him
up got him in a photo id lined up owner picked him out right away and we arrested him saying now we got a
new occupation he makes license plates you know if your heating and cooling system isn't working as well as it
should try checking the filter and if that isn't the problem see if you've got a burglar caught in the duck
hey it happens see for yourself we were working at night watch it was near the end of the watch and we got a
call for burglars in the building at a store so we go over there and we have four cars on it two on the
perimeter and two to go inside and search the building a short time later get a call on the radio that
they have the situation secure so i walk on up there and i'm dumbfounded i look at everybody
what is this and as it turns out it's this burglar who was hanging upside down encumbered on the
air duct grating for six hours prior to our arrival he was so hung up in the ceiling there that we had to call
the fire department to get the jaws of life and cut him out of there so we get him out and so he's telling us
that uh he decided to climb up a tree which was about five feet away from the building and he's about twenty feet off
the ground and he jumps onto the roof pulls the grate off to the air duct and his story is he
heard some music and he was leaning in to listen to the music and he fell in he had no intention of committing a
burglary when it was all said and done he had two other burglary charges pending and the state of missouri gave
them a nice warm place to stay for five years [Applause] [Music] in carmel california women are not
allowed to wear high heels while in the city limits does that mean that men are but if so that leads right to our next
story a man in a dress is by nature a funny idea it works for milton berle flip wilson and mom's mabely but it's a
real drag for a guy hoping to get off the hook with police here's another of america's dumbest excuses
[Applause] i stopped a car in a local park and it was occupied by one person one
guy and i thought it was suspicious he would kept leaning over to the front of the seat looked like he was putting
something underneath the seat so i pulled up behind him got out started talking to him a little bit noticed
right away that he was wearing a dress a pink flower dress drawstrings and had a slip-on underneath even
so i got a little little suspicious so after i got him out of the car i saw some empty beer cans in the car and
placed him under a rest for the the open liquor in a park and i found 11 bags of
rock cocaine underneath the front seat and from there i started to ask him about
you know hey why are you wearing a dress he said that he was robbed and since he didn't have any money they
made him put a dress on and so he just kept it on when i asked him why he didn't put his clothes back on which was
sitting right on the front seat he said that his car overheated and he lived about a half a block away and he was
just about to put the clothes on when i pulled up based on his dirty feet we thought he was out dancing in the park
[Applause] if you are disturbed by senseless acts of violence against electronic equipment
i suggest you turn away now but if you're one of those people who wish your uncle lou would get the camcorder out of
your face at thanksgiving dinner you may take a certain devious pleasure in what
you're about to see it's a blink of the eye blue light special [Music] if you think the food here is fast watch
the speedy moves of these robbers this one's a little camera shy ouch ah but the videotape is even faster than
they are recording unfavorable impressions of these guys before lights out just what the police officers order
salad bar no crowbar unfortunately yes behind bars definitely because remember not only does the camera never lie it
always has the last laugh when old yobes robbers really scoped out their targets they had blueprints they
drew diagrams they carried stopwatches to practice their schemes well clearly the crook you're about to see put very
little planning into his heist and it shows i normally work the day shift and early
one morning i left the station a little bit late went down to the coffee shop to get
myself a coffee because i was a little tired got my coffee all set to sit down to finish up paperwork from the night
before and we had a bank alarm come in i started heading the area like every other cruiser normally does when we have
a bank alarm and on the way to the bank we got a description of the vehicle as i'm driving down one of the streets i
spot a car coming from that direction about the right amount of time it would take when you get there i look at him he
looks at me i figure it's got to be him the way he looked at me i pulled him over
he gave me an explanation that he just dropped his daughter off at school and he was headed home i detained him at the
bank employees who said they saw this guy came up and they identified him as the
guy who tried to rob the bank is that the guy that's the guy the kicker is the thing that makes these
things so interesting is the fact that he entered the bank through the first set of doors
looked at the tellers all lined up and ready to go for the morning step to the left put a mask over his head step back
to the right and tried to go into the bank the problem is it was ten to nine bank doesn't open until nine o'clock
he hauled on the doors until he broke him but by that time so much time had gone by the tellers had pushed the alarm
he figured it out took his mask off and ran out the door he ran out to his car which was parked
inside the bank right next to the window so all the tellers could see him get in
his car and leave in the direction that i was actually coming from he apparently
looked at the clock to the bank right next to this one and the clock was ten minutes fast
so four times on this part [Music] and now with the news here's a guy who could add charm to any police lineup
here's daniel with abc headlines [Applause] [Music] while paying for his meal at a barbecue
restaurant in shreveport louisiana a man decided to place a to-go order for all the cash in the register the clerk did
as instructed and the robber was out of the door faster than you could say hot sauce in fact he left so fast that he
left his wallet containing among other items his prison id card now here's a thought that'll launch you
towards the stratosphere of stupidity hey i'm drunk i think i'll go steal an airplane
a california man took to the sky on a not so natural high barely missing a hospital before he surged through power
lines and took a nosedive into the median of a freeway cheap thrills hardly the utility company billed him for one
hundred and eighteen thousand dollars for damages plus he's being sued by the owner of the
plane and a man injured by his kamikaze caper so much for the friendly skies almost clever drug smugglers thought
they'd come up with a devious way to transport over six thousand pounds of marijuana into the us from mexico they
rigged a propane tanker trunk with a secret compartment yet it was able to produce propane gas from all of its
valves impressive yes but there was one unsightly little oversight they misspelled the name of the well-known
gas company outside of the truck and that closes the files on adc headlines news rips from somewhere near
the back of your local newspaper debbie [Music] you've seen the bumper sticker that
reads hugs not drugs well here's the story of a mother who couldn't choose between the two so she offered her son
both it's our special delivery the matter that we're presenting today is a case we call the family affair because
it involves the arrest of both an 18 year old son and his mother the 18 year old defendant was in police custody for
a theft charge and during processing he requested to make a phone call it's not uncommon that defendants will ask to
call somebody before they're transported to the county jail in this instance we we certainly allowed him to call
somebody and he called his mother we were happy about that because we had an arrest warrant for the mother as well
mom arrives a short time later at the police department well she requests the opportunity to
give her son a hug before he's transported to the local prison so we certainly allowed and they had they
embraced for a short time the embrace was in such a manner that they were trying to uh conceal their
bodies away from the officers who were also present and it just looked unusual to the officers and they knew something
was up the problem is mom is slipping him some narcotics during the hug during the embrace
well of course there is a constable present there are police officers present they view this transaction not
only is mother arrested for the outstanding warrant but also of delivery of a controlled substance that being the
narcotics to her son who was in police custody at the time of course the police officers would never stand in the way of
a mother's love for her son especially a son who she wouldn't see for a while because it was being incarcerated so we
were more than happy to allow them to embrace [Applause] colors twists old-fashioned bear claws
honey buns cream filled chocolate covered or rolled in sprinkles i practically glaze over just thinking
about them and to think that anyone would pull a doughnut heist is downright repugnant they should be dunked in oil
kind of like doughnuts for the story we go to delray beach florida we were out checking out a local grocery
store because they were having some burglaries that took took place they were losing some bakery goods
so we decided to put one of our offices under cover i was sort of put in charge of taking
care of it so they stuck me in an undercover vehicle unmarked and i sat and watched and
i happened to see one of the cleaning crew members who cleaned the parking lot throughout the night
grabbing the donuts and sort of stashed in the bushes for a later time to snack on and i happened to
catch him in the act he wasn't too happy with that he said i can't believe i'm going to jail over a
box of donuts i said well stealing stealing whether it's a box of donuts or a car the evidence never got
emptied nobody takes my donuts despite the media and public's opinion all the donuts recovered and returned to
the store we did not eat them [Music] [Applause] now let's look back at one of abc's
greatest hits on christmas morning in chevy chase maryland a couple called the police to
report a burglar in their home who was downstairs attempting to stuff their presents into his pants and sneak out
police quietly entered the house and arrested the little elf who must have been looking for a pair of suspenders
that he obviously misplaced before leaving the north pole he was last seen decking the halls at the local chain
[Applause] in georgia you have the right to commit simple battery if provoked by fighting
words a lady had called the police department reporting that she had called her stolen
cell phone number hello you have my phone and it was answered by a guy named skip this is
skip who they just stated he had just paid 50 for the cell phone and he wanted 50
dollars to basically break even on it they decided to meet up at the local burger king
where i was able to be with the victim inside her vehicle laying down on the floor of the sport
utility vehicle he circles our vehicle and stops i tell the driver to have the suspect get out of his
vehicle at that point as they're talking i'd get out of our vehicle and approach him and place him under
arrest for trafficking's on property and i searched his vehicle incident to arrest where i found
some methamphetamine and some marijuana this guy should have quit while he was ahead
[Music] when you need to settle an argument and judge judy is busy who are you gonna
call if your answer is ghostbusters you need to get out more often okay that movie's 20 years old okay a less exotic
though more timely response would be to call the police which is just what happens in this story here's we're not
making this up [Music] i got a call to go to a family dispute and i walk up and there's this old lady
on the front porch i said man what's wrong and she said there's this old boy over
here he keeps coming out here staring at me who is it that old boy that lives over there they call it biscuit i
knocked on the door and biscuit comes to the door and i said are you biscuit she he said
yeah biscuit i want you to quit looking at her okay you heard the man tell that crazy fat quit looking at me and i said
okay man will you quit looking at him you quit going paw come on okay sir quit going paw to her
i said okay so i get about maybe two blocks away and as and i hear on the radio officer may go back there
at it again and when i get back biscuit's mama's there and she has her hands underneath her
arms going walking in a circle and biscuit was on the front porch all right i'm going y'all are acting
like children i'm gonna have to treat you like children go to your room and they all turn around and whip it
into their rooms i said don't come out until y'all can play nicely and i didn't get another call for the
rest of the night [Music] well daniel's donut box is empty so it's time to go yeah i hope next week we have
a story about a steak and lobster steak out you work up your appetite well our staff works up new stories an ice cream
store wouldn't be bad either you know rocky road huh i feel like i traveled that every week with you oh yeah
and we'll travel it again next week won't we yes we will but before we leave we'd like to thank the officers who
helped us with this show and say hats off to all who serve in law enforcement we appreciate the good folks who protect
us from the bad guys if you'd like to drop us a line visit our website www.dumbcrimes.com
as always we hope that we've all learned from others mistakes but if you haven't
we just might see you next week on america's dumbest criminals wow [Applause] [Music]
[Applause] [Music] you

In this episode of “America’s Dumbest Criminals,” we’ll witness an inmate in a hurry, someone dressed like they should be in a hurry and what you need to catch sticky-fingered donut thieves.

Crime is no laughing matter, except when the criminals are bumbling fools. Hosted by Debbie Alan and Daniel Butler, this show looks at lawbreakers through a humorous lens.

Brief Summary

This episode features absurd crime stories including an inmate escape, a tip jar theft, and a donut heist.

Key points

Caught on Camera: The Escapee. A Nashville news crew captures an inmate's escape on tape, leading to his capture.
The Tip Jar Heist. A man steals a tip jar while applying for a job, leading to his arrest.
Mother-Son Drug Delivery. A mother tries to sneak drugs to her son during a hug at the police station.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Hey, I'm drunk, I think I'll go steal an airplane.

A man steals a plane while intoxicated.

11:21WatchMar 10, 2022

Tension

30/ 100Low tension

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