5 Of The Worst Criminals To Be Caught On CCTV

CCTV is one of the best ways to deter intruders and catch criminals red-handed if they target your premises. But that’s not all - CCTV cameras don’t just record crime, they also immortalise some of the dumbest criminal moments!

Here are 5 of the worst criminals ever caught on CCTV. So sit back and enjoy the stories of how some particularly dim lawbreakers got their just desserts.

1. Working In The Dark

We often think of burglars as exceptionally smart people who master ways to beat security systems with their highly developed criminal brains. But fortunately for us, not all burglars are members of the criminal elite.

Take this guy, for example.

While disguising their face with a mask, tights, or a bag is a classic way for burglars to avoid being identified on CCTV, this thief’s execution wasn’t up to scratch.

While attempting to rob a convenience store in the middle of the night, he was captured on CCTV entering the building with a sack on his head, completely unable to see due to a lack of eye holes.

He proceeds to crash into a filing cabinet before turning around and leaving the room having apparently figured the problem out… only to return with a torch.

2. Window Pains

Having you ever spent several minutes working out how to enter a room with a wide-open doorway? Even if the answer is yes, you're smarter than this guy.

He decides to break into a garage, so he tries the door, then battles with the window for quite some time before he finally manages to open it and jump through.

The catch? His time was completely wasted - there was no door on the other side of the building. In fact, that side has no wall at all. He could have just walked into the garage through the side entrance!

The burglar seems more than a little embarrassed when he realises his mistake. And who wouldn’t be?

3. TV Troubles

These crooks decided to park their car right outside the place that they were stealing from, leaving their hazard warning lights on to draw extra attention to themselves, and slipping on broken glass. One man then kicks the door down and enters the building, with nothing to cover his head but a baseball cap.

They decide to steal the flat-screen television on the wall. But there is a problem - the TV does not detach. The trio spend over a minute trying to wrestle the TV off the wall, only to find that it just spins around. They try everything, kicking against the wall to try to dislodge the television, and even hanging their whole body weight from the fixture.

Eventually, they manage to get the TV down from the wall, but it’s too heavy for them, so they immediately drop it. The men then decide the television is not worth the effort and run out the door – with each one slipping on the broken glass again as they go.

4. Australia’s Dumbest Criminal?

Stealing an ATM machine is a bad move by itself. They’re impossible to get into, and usually equipped with CCTV cameras in just the right place to capture a close-up view of your face.

In spite of all of this, one man decided to break into a garage in Queensland, Australia and steal their ATM.

He’s fully prepared, arriving with a big truck and a chain to drag it out. Except there’s one problem - when he tries to connect the ATM to the chain, the chain breaks. Without realising, he then drives off down the road before eventually working out there’s no ATM on the end of his chain.

When going back to the garage to try to reconnect the chain, he then finds that his chain is now too short. At this point he gives up and calls it a day, having achieved nothing but making himself look silly on CCTV.

5. An Empty-Handed Getaway

Everyone loves a good chase sequence, but we can’t always get what we want.

Having run out of a store carrying his stolen goods while being pursued by an employee hot on his tail, this thief probably thought he would enjoy making a dramatic escape and disappearing into the sunset with his ill-gotten gains.

However, he hadn’t realised why his pick-up truck might make a poor choice of getaway vehicle.

Having done the hard work of grabbing the goods, running out the store, and reaching his truck, he then put his loot in the cargo hold and sped off as fast as he could… but not before the store employee had simply reached into the cargo hold and removed the stolen goods.

Do you ever feel like you’ve done the hard work only to have the basics let you down? This guy can relate…

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