I like chewing gum, how about you? How much do you like chewing gum? Are you an addict? In Johannesburg, South Africa in early 2004, several South African gunmen staged a daring heist, and managed to steal 21 pallets of goods worth around $14,000. For some reason though, the thieves stole only chewing gum. There were other items in the warehouse, but they decided to take only the gum. Police were confused about the motivation behind the great chewing gum heist. "We wouldn't understand the thinking of criminals," one said. Stick around for more strange but true stories…

A man walked into a Topeka, Kansas Kwik Shop and asked for all the money in the cash drawer. Apparently, the take was too small so he tied up the store clerk and worked the counter himself for three hours until police showed up and grabbed him.

Usually when we think of armed robbers we imagine someone holding a gun. But there have been some rather unusual weapons used in hold-ups. The weapons have included: an artificial leg, a frozen sausage, a lit cigarette, a hot fudge sundae, a wedge of cheese, and a Chihuahua!

In 1978 Mr Rich of London held up a local branch of his bank. To disguise himself, the would-be robber had placed 3 stocking masks and a scarf over his head. Unfortunately he could not see properly and when he began waving his gun about and demanding money, the hostages did not seem to be at all afraid. In fact they seemed rather amused. Instead of waving a gun around, Mr Rich was menacing everyone with his glasses case. Embarrassed he fled from the scene and was arrested a short time later. He was found hiding behind a nearby car.

In Oregon in 1969 a bank-robber handed over a note to the teller which read "This is a hold-up and I’ve got a gun. Put the money in a paper bag". The teller wrote back, "I haven’t got a paper bag." The robber ran off.

In Saltillo Prison in Northern Mexico, 75 prisoners spent six months digging a tunnel towards freedom. When the tunnel was finally completed they made their escape one by one into the tunnel. Unfortunately the tunnel’s end emerged into a nearby courtroom. As each prisoner appeared, the astonished judge immediately ordered him to be sent back to jail.

In 1979 a shoplifter by the name of David Goodall in England entered a general store. After helping himself to all of the items that he wanted he then raced towards the door. But before Mr Goodall could escape, 8 detectives stopped him. That particular shop at that particular time was holding a convention of store detectives.

A gang of safe crackers from Chichester used the latest sophisticated equipment when they set about cutting open a safe. The not-so clever thieves unfortunately used the wrong equipment and succeeded in actually welding up the safe door. Later after the manager found the bungled robbery attempt, he said that it took 3 hours to open the door using a hammer and chisel.

A not-so clever robber decided to announce his presence before robbing a jewellery shop by blasting his horn while driving up onto the footpath outside the shop. The staff looked up in surprise and watched as the thief stopped the car and threw a hammer at the window. As the window was made of toughened glass, the hammer bounced off, so the thief made a decision to ram his car through the window. Unfortunately as he attempted to reverse into the glass, he missed it and drove over a wastepaper bin and then the car became stuck and would not move. Mr Herbert Eaton, an evangelical missionary was passing by just at that moment, and he prevented the thief’s getaway by heaving his bicycle through the windscreen.

One enterprising young fellow decided to rob a shop while waiting for his girlfriend. He wrote out a strong note of demand that read "I have a gun in my pocket. I will shoot if you do not hand over the money" and took it into a local shop. The assistant refused to read the note as she thought it was something obscene. The robber dashed into an Asian shop and held it up to the owner who gazed uncomprehendingly at the words. The owner could not read English. Unperturbed he then ran into a Chinese take-away and the manager there could not read the message either as he had forgotten his glasses. The manager excused himself on the pretence of searching for his glasses and while he was gone, called the police. The rather unlucky robber was quickly arrested.

A Danish thief in 1978 robbed a bank and then ran out onto the street in search of a taxi. The thief quickly hailed the nearest taxi, only to find himself in the back of a police-car without realising it. Meanwhile the bank manager ran out onto the street screaming out for the police. The dopey robber was quickly arrested.

This is a lesson for all would be house burglars – either know the layout of the place you’re robbing, or leave mansions well alone. A burglar from Los Angeles broke into a huge mansion in 1982 and began helping himself to the goods. He made his way through the ballroom and into the hall, then down the escalators to the swimming pool, up to the library, then across the dining room, out of the annexe and then found himself in the conservatory. At this point he decided to leave and attempted to exit the building. He went back through the dining room and ended up in the gymnasium, then into the indoor tennis court, down a spiral staircase and eventually made his way to an enclosed patio with fountains. From there he went to the cocktail lounge, through a studio and then back into the conservatory. By this stage, the thief was beginning to panic a little and he ran towards the library, into a gallery, through a kitchen and into a jacuzzi enclosure, up 2 flights of stairs and then became quite hysterical when he realised he was lost. He ran along a balcony, along more corridors, more stairs, down a landing and then into the master bedroom where he woke up the owners so that they could tell him how to get out. The owners kindly arranged for the local police to escort him off the premises.

If you are not a particularly clever person, then whatever you do, don’t take up robbery. Two fellows from Stoke-on-Tent stole a water tank. They quite forgot that it was still half-full and left a nice trail of puddles for the police to follow them home. Then there was the American bank robber who gave a note to the cashier demanding money and ran off with a sackful of cash. The robber was kind enough to have left his name and address on the back of the note for the police to track him down. Probably one of the cleverest robbers was the one who held up a store in Yorkshire in 1970. Wearing a motorbike helmet over his head to protect his identity he was soon arrested by the police. The robber had his name written in large gold letters across the front of his helmet.

Two not so clever teenagers broke into a grocery shop in 1984. After locating the cashbox, they ripped it out of the wall and ran back out into the street. As they were running away the box began emitting a shrill buzzing sound and they threw it down to the ground and began to stomp on it in the hopes of stopping the noise. Despite all of their efforts, the noise would not stop, so the teenagers threw the box into the river. The two boys had not stolen the cashbox. They had in fact stolen the burglar alarm

Four London criminals made thorough plans to rob a laundry in 1985. Somehow the police were informed and set up an extensive plan to catch the robbers in the act. On the day in question, the police hid just outside the laundry while the manager stayed inside with a specially emptied box. As the manager stepped through the door, the police readied themselves for the task, when another thief dashed out from nearby, grabbed the empty box and disappeared without a trace.

In 1994 in Los Angeles a young man with a gun burst into a liquor shop and demanded money from the cash register. The shop assistant quickly handed over the money to the robber. The thief then demanded the bottle of liquor which was on the shelf behind the shop assistant. The shop assistant refused to hand over the bottle and the thief became a little flustered and demanded to know why he couldn’t have it. The shop assistant said that he could not give alcohol to anyone under 21. The robber promised that he was 21, but still the assistant would not hand over the bottle. Finally, the frustrated thief took out his wallet and showed his driver’s licence to prove he of legal age. The shop assistant appeared satisfied and then gave the alcohol to the thief. A short time later the thief found himself in police custody after the shop assistant had passed on details of the robber’s name and address which he had memorised from the thief’s driver’s licence.

A wannabe bank robber from Detroit passed a note to the bank teller demanding money and claiming he was armed. As the robber looked around he noticed all of the cameras around the bank and decided that he didn’t want to be filmed. So he told the teller he would wait outside for the cash and that they should just bring it out when it was ready. The robber went outside to wait for his money, and very shortly afterwards, the police turned up and nabbed him.

A man by the name of Charles Haggard entered a giant "do-it-yourself" store with the intention of robbing it. Meanwhile police became alerted to the event and caught him in the act. After Mr Haggard spied the police he made a dash for the door, pulled it open and ran through. Then he saw another door, opened it and ran through, then another door. In total Mr Haggard ran through eleven fake doors before literally running into a brick wall and knocking himself out.

A would-be plane hijacker in 1976 took out a gun and demanded the stewardess to make the plane take him to Detroit. "But we’re going to Detroit already," replied the stewardess. The hijacker said, "Oh, good," and sat back down.

A group of professional thieves in Norway had carefully planned their robbery and everything was going according to plan. The robbers located the safe and set up an explosive charge to break down it’s door and allow them to get at the money inside. Once they set the fuse, they dashed into a nearby room and crouched down behind the wall. A few seconds later, the explosives went off, but instead of a minor blast, there was a huge one! Sure the door of the safe blew off, but so did the roof of the building - and then the entire building collapsed. The thieves became trapped under the rubble and couldn’t escape. So what had gone wrong? They had put only a small amount of explosives on the safe, but what they hadn’t counted on, was that the safe did not contain money, but it had actually been filled with dynamite.

A US crook who was often in trouble with the law, tried to pick up another man’s wife in a local bar. Soon a fight broke out until eventually the whole place was involved in an old-fashioned all-out bar-room brawl. When someone yelled out "Cops", the troublemaker made a dash for the door and out into the parking lot. With few places to hide and the policeman converging on the tavern, the man opened up the back door of a car and snuck in. Lying down along the floor of the car, he figured he could hide out there until the police were gone. A few minutes later more police and squad cars arrived and although the troublemaker couldn’t hear what was being said, he did hear his own name over and over again. Suddenly the car door opened and there was the husband of the woman the troublemaker had started the fight over. Of all the cars to hide in, the troublemaker had chosen this man’s. Fortunately before the husband could beat the daylights out of him, the police came over and arrested the two of them.

Janice Patterson had just withdrawn her last five dollars from her account, and even though she needed more, she had to wait two more days for her pay. After she left the bank and returned to her car, a man suddenly jumped into the front seat beside her and pointed a gun at her face. The man demanded all of her cash and Janice reluctantly handed over her five dollars. The robber was very angry and disappointed at the small amount, and after he checked her purse, he demanded that they return to the bank. Inside the bank the robber demanded that Janice write him a cheque for eighty-five dollar, but in her haste, Janice forgot to write her signature on it. The bank clerk must have noticed something amiss and slipped into the Manager’s office to call the police. Soon the police arrived and the robber was arrested. The bank clerk later commented to Janice, "It’s a good thing you didn’t sign it. There’s a twenty-five dollar processing fee for bounced cheques."

Some thieves are just really dumb. One criminal in Ohio robbed a café and as he exited, the paper bag containing the money tore open, and coins and bills were strewn across the road. When the robber reached his car and tried to unlock the door, the key broke off in the lock. Then in his struggles to open the door, the robber accidentally shot himself in the foot with his revolver. After he hobbled into a local hospital, the police were called, and the dumb criminal was arrested.

Some criminals are just plain unlucky. A police officer in Ohio was searching for a criminal who had been involved in some local robberies and he stopped cars that matched the description of the burglar’s vehicle. The officer stopped such a vehicle and asked the driver for his license and the man quickly handed it over. The officer glanced at the license and then took a closer look. He asked the car-driver to repeat some of the details on the license which the car-driver did. The officer continued questioning the man for several minutes until finally he told the driver that he didn’t believe the license belonged to him. The driver protested that the license was his. The police officer eventually arrested the man and took him in for questioning. The officer knew the license had been bogus as the name and address on it actually belonged to his own brother. And the criminal in question was detained for quite some time as he had three outstanding warrants for his arrest.

A 51-year-old man has been charged with burglary and theft after locking himself in the car he was attempting to steal. After the would-be thief managed his way into the 1994 Infiniti, an alarm was triggered, and a security device automatically locked all the doors. It turns out that there is another button on the driver's door that would have simply released the locks, but the suspect didn't figure that out. Police found him crouched in the back seat, trying to hide from any onlookers. He had coins in his pockets that he had stolen from inside the car. Sergeant Keith Faulk said, "Maybe he needs a new line of work. He's not very good at what he's doing now." Hmmm...maybe he should consider getting a JOB.

How would you like neighbours like this: In October 2002, in White River Junction, Vt., Stewart Fuller, 41, was charged with looting about $30,000 worth of goods from the house of neighbors Roger and Shirley Labelle. Mr and Mrs Labellle were away at the time the goods were stolen, but upon their return, they noticed their neighbours were holding a garage sale but selling Mr & Mrs Labelle’s own goods! The police were happy to point out to Mr Fuller that when you hold a garage sale, you’re supposed to sell your OWN goods, not your neighbour’s!

In Rio de Janeiro in 2003, a Brazilian man by the name of Anderlei Moreira da Silva, and his accomplice, stole a car and a mobile phone. The car’s owner phoned the thief on his mobile phone and after some discussion, the owner agreed to pay the thief $345 to return his car. The clever thief then gave details of his bank account to the car’s owner and requested that the money be deposited there before he returned the car. The money was deposited, but the thief did not return the stolen car. The car’s owner went to the police, who easily tracked down the thief through his bank account details. When they arrested the suspect, they even found another stolen vehicle in his yard.

In Los Angeles in 2002, Tyrone Hogan was a carjacker. One evening he drove to a service station and spotted a vehicle he wanted to carjack. As he reached into the van take the car-keys, the several men from the vehicle easily wrestled Tyrone to the ground and held him there until the police arrived. "We had this guy like a pretzel on the ground," they said to the police. Unfortunately, Tyrone the carjacker had picked the wrong car and the wrong occupants to mess with. The occupants were from the Florida International University judo team. Obviously he’d had no problems wrestling with his conscience, but next time I think he’ll think twice!

A criminal in Utah was arrested when his girlfriend accidentally helped police with their investigations. The police had picked up the criminal’s mobile phone which the offender had left at the crime scene, but at that point, the police had no idea of the criminal’s identity. The criminal’s girlfriend phoned during the investigation and when the police answered, she asked, "Are you with ..." and she gave the suspect’s name. I’m sure the police officer’s face must have lit up with delight upon being told the criminal’s name and he responded, "No, but we will be shortly." That certainly proved the case, and the 24 year old offender was soon picked up.

John Gladney was a 43 year old in Columbus Ohio, who decided to rob a bank. After he was handed the money, he shoved it into his pants because he had nothing in which to carry it. What Gladney hadn’t planned on was the security device which had been planted in the cash. The mechanism was set to explode and release a dye on both the robber and the money. As the thief dashed off down the street, the security device exploded with such force, that it inflicted considerable pain. The police saw him hobbling along, trying to escape, and nabbed him straight away!

In March 2003, a burglar was arrested by British police after he was found in the Twin Farms pub in the northern city of Newcastle. That might not sound so bad, but the silly fellow was found stuck in a chimney. Firemen were called in to rescue him, and they hauled into safety with a rope. After his rescue, the man claimed he’d been trying to rescue a cat.

A Dutch woman tried on a pair of trousers in a store, then deliberately left the shop without paying for them. A few days later, while trying them on at home, the thief realised that they weren’t a good fit after all. Talk about cheek - the shoplifter phoned the store back and asked if she could exchange the stolen trousers. While on the phone, the store clerk couldn’t recall selling those particular trousers and quickly reviewed the security videotapes, which showed the caller stealing the item. The clerk then told the thief that she did have the trousers in a larger size. After she hung up, the clerk phoned the police, and when the dumb shoplifter arrived to exchange her trousers, the police arrested her for shoplifting.

A burglar in Amsterdam in August 2003, snuck in through the window of a house belonging to an elderly woman. He hunted around for valuables to steal, and at some point decided it might be nice to have a nap. At about 6 o’clock in the morning, the home-owner found him asleep in her living room and contacted the police. Completely oblivious, the burglar slept on and didn’t stir until the police arrived and woke him up. When the police found jewellery on the man, belonging to the elderly woman, he confessed that he had broken into the house, and was arrested.

Ben Rogozensky in the USA had been awaiting hearing charges in September 2003. While he was waiting for his lawyer to arrive, Mr Rogozenksy took the opportunity to attempt an escape. Grabbing hold of a stool, he clambered into the ceiling and then crawled three meters through the ceiling crawl space at the DeKalb Country courthouse. At this point, he fell through the ceiling and landed right in front of the desk belonging to State Court Judge J Antonio DelCampo. Although he tried to flee, he was quickly recaptured, and sentenced.

A 32 year old Austrian extreme sports fan, jumped from a 160m high skyscraper in Munich in 2003. As he left from the 35th floor, he pulled the cord, but unfortunately, his chute failed to open properly. He was about to plunge to his death, when his chute got accidentally snared on a crane next to the building. Fortunately for the parachutist, the crane saved his life. The parachutist was then investigated by the police for his illegal activity.

Can you imagine going to court, and your LAWYER ends up going to jail? A solicitor appeared in a court in Berlin, on behalf of his client. While there, the judge observed that the court documents didn’t have the lawyer’s address on them. A quick check determined that the lawyer was wanted for an outstanding $900 fine. Only two minutes after entering the court to defend his client, the lawyer was sentenced to jail for fifteen days, because he could not prove that he had paid the fine.

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