Thank GOD for stupid crooks!

[Cindy Rennie]

So here I am, working away, verifying fingerprint identifications and sending out reports, when across my desk comes a report of a pair of fingerprints that have been developed on Probation papers - probation papers that have been left behind in a stolen van!

OK, one stupid crook. Let's get back to work.

Next case, double charge - Stolen Vehicle and Assault Bodily Harm.
Suspect is driving a stolen van and gets into altercation with cyclist. Suspect gets out of stolen van and punches cyclist in head, rendering cyclist unconsious. Suspect gets back into stolen van and drives away.

Now, maybe it's just me...but if I was driving a stolen van, I'd keep my hands to myself.

Anybody have a story like this?

[L.J.Steele]

Ah, if they showed judgment and sense, most wouldn't become my clients...

Best story I had heard was from a fingerprint examiner in Worcester. Bad guys robbed a store. Meticulously used gloves inside. But not to lift out the window they cut -- perfect set of all ten prints on the glass.

[Pat A. Wertheim]

When I was with Plano (TX) PD, officers responded to a call of burglary in progress at a residence where the sole occupant had stayed home from work sick that day. She was in bed and had heard glass break in another part of the house. Officers responding caught the burglar and booked him. I had initiated a known burglar file of major case prints so I went back to book-in and printed the guy even though he had been wearing gloves when he was arrested.

A few weeks later one of the detectives came to me after I returned from a residential burglary and asked if I had got any latents. As it turned out, I had some beautiful prints from a broken window at the point of entry. The detective asked me to compare the latents to the burglar from several weeks earlier. "Why?" I asked. "Part of his MO is that he wears gloves."

But I compared the prints anyway and identified the burglar sure enough. So when they brought him back to jail, curiousity got the best of me and I went back into his cell to talk to him. "Several weeks ago when we arrested you at that burglary, you were wearing gloves. Why weren't you wearing them this time?"

His answer was a classic: "Aw, man, you all kept my gloves."

[David L. Grieve]

Well, there was the guy who wrote the hold-up note in a bank robbery on his own deposit slip containing his name, address and telephone number, then left it behind. And we had a defendant who insisted upon acting as his own attorney on a burglary charge. When cross examining the latent print examiner who had testified to finding and identifying the defendant's latent print on a jewelry box, the defendant asked again the location of the print. When the witness pointed to one side of the lid, the defendant called him a liar and insisted he had only touched the other side. But my all time favorite was a burglar who always wore gloves and from the MO seemed responsible for numerous hits. Our guy covering one of the scenes happened to notice the toilet seat in an upright position while the victim, female, lived alone. He asked the victim if she had any visitors lately, and she replied she had not. Our guy processed the under side of the seat and recovered three beautiful latents. When the burglar was arrested, he was obvious confused when informed his prints had been identified. But when he was told where the prints were found, he shook his head and said, "Mom was right about putting that damn seat back down."

[Angie]

This was one of my favorite idents......

Bad guy breaks into the house and was arrested a couple of days later because of a fingerprint ident. He couldn't figure it out becuase he had worn gloves the entire time. Well...... he didn't wear gloves was when he bought the pack of Marlboros that fell out of his pocket while he was ransacking the master bedroom!!

[Bill Schade]

Burglar want to avoid leaving prints on a safe he is carrying out of an office.

Picks up two pieces of loose leaf paper and uses them to shield his hands but he drops the paper on the floor outside and two full palm prints with 8 fingers quickly led to his apprehension.

By the way, the safe had a textured surface that would probably not have yielded usable prints using the methods of development available 25 years ago.

Thank you stupid crook

[skflynn]

Then there was the burglar that was using a flashlight while stripping electrical componets and wire froma vacant industrial business. The crook made a clean getaway from security man, But left the mag type flashlight. I recovered and identified prints from the batteries inside. Dooh.

[Charles Parker]

There was a gang murder. As the two suspects were preparing to place the victim in a dumpster one of them took his pager off and set it on the side of the dumpster where the arms of the truck go to lift the dumpster. They got in a hurry to leave and left the pager. In preparing to work the scene the Detective and CST heard the pager and made the connection to one of the suspects.

A latent was developed on the plastic lid of the dumpster and was identified to the second suspect.

I think the best so far is the paper used to pick up the safe. That is a classic.

[David Fairhurst]

Here's one I just learned of:

A pair of shoes are stolen from a sports shop.
DNA on the wrapping left in the box is matched to a local nominal.
Police call round to the address to make an arrest and the barefooted suspect says "Just let me put some shoes on..."
Yep! He comes back wearing a brand-new pair of shoes matching those stolen from the shop.

[Stephany Louk-Denney]

My first time testifying in court was about a case where an inmate forged his own release papers from prison. The inmate did a good job - the documents looked real. He would have gotten away with it, except for the fact that the judge's name he forged happened to be on vacation when the papers were allegedly signed. Numerous prints were developed and I identified more than enough prints to keep him in prison. Here's the kicker: he only had a few more months left of his original sentence (I guess he couldn't wait any longer).

[sharon cook]

I had a case where the bad guy used a gun to rob some people. There was a struggle and the gun was left behind. Latent prints were lifted from the gun and identified to the bad guy who went away for a while. When he got out, he pulled another robbery, only this time he wrapped a paper bag around the gun to keep his prints off it. He took the gun with him when he left, but left the paper bag behind. Once again, latent prints from the bag matched the bad guy and he was dumbfounded, (DUMB-founded) when he was caught again.

Most of these guys (and girls) are usually so drunk or stoned when they do the job, that it's not unusual to find wallets, parole papers, bank receipts, etc.