Cellphone criminal dubbed "dumbest" by police

Rest assured, we've seen some brainless criminals in our day, but this one ranks pretty high on the list. Reportedly, a (potentially inebriated) individual waltzed into a police station and frantically announced that his phone had been stolen at gunpoint. When the detective called the number of the phone reportedly stolen, however, a ring was heard from the "victim's" pocket. After pondering what the criminal hoped to gain from the situation, we here at Engadget HQ came up empty, and apparently, the police involved in the situation were equally stumped -- so stumped, in fact, that they issued a statement entitled "Dumbest criminal?" with details of the event in a local newspaper. We'd say that sums it up fairly accurately.

[Image courtesy of FOTW, thanks LordFarkward]

[Darkest Daze @ Jan 9th 2008 2:11AM]

Maybe he thought it was Verizon and wanted a free replacement but didn't buy the insurance?

That's all I can come up with. The other option is that he's just stupid.

[holycow @ Jan 9th 2008 2:16AM]

What a dumbass :)

[waiownsyou @ Jan 9th 2008 2:17AM]

O RLY?

[Rynth @ Jan 9th 2008 4:15AM]

Ya, rly.

[Steele @ Jan 9th 2008 5:43PM]

Wow.... just.... wow

[Glen @ Jan 9th 2008 2:31AM]

Wow, a South African story makes it onto Engadget! Just a pity that a story about the dumbest criminal is the one to do so, but it is rediculasly funny in anycase. Here is the main story from News24

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2247865,00.html

[Gregor @ Jan 9th 2008 2:34AM]

It's a typical insurance fraud case, esp. in South Africa! The guy most probably wanted a new phone and needed an official statement from the Police in order to claim from the insurance.

Pretty dumb forgetting to put it on silence thou :P

[Michael @ Jan 9th 2008 2:47AM]

I have actually walked around my house for 15 minutes before leaving looking for my phone, only to eventually realize I was talking on it. Is it possible the guy just couldn't find his phone, and being NEAR a police station at the time committed the above offense?

[vaiyach @ Jan 24th 2008 7:51AM]

Umm.. I bet he added the "stolen on gun point" for the kicks..! Yes sir!

[Jeremy @ Jan 9th 2008 12:44PM]

You should have asked the person you were talking to for help.

[computer.dude.28 @ Jan 9th 2008 5:18PM]

Where did my keyboard go?

[FordGTGuy @ Jan 9th 2008 2:50AM]

Can you hear me now?

[LegendZ28 @ Jan 9th 2008 2:59AM]

I was expecting a lot more with a title like that.

[webon @ Jan 9th 2008 3:02AM]

me2 I mean this guy was drunk, I've seen worse, many worse.

[L3 @ Jan 9th 2008 3:18AM]

You guys are just mean. Couldn't he have meant his other phone?

[Sid @ Jan 9th 2008 3:36AM]

So.. you were the guy! :P

JK

[klew @ Jan 9th 2008 3:51AM]

What was the crime? Being potentially inebriated or did he actually get charged with filing a false police report? It sounds like the situation never went that far, ending once the phone was found to be not stolen. Or is the "at gunpoint" a misplaced modifier describing the man making the announcement to the police while brandishing a gun (instead of describing the man being robbed at gunpoint)?

[drakono @ Jan 9th 2008 8:27AM]

Someone posted earlier a link to the story on news24.com, which says:

"The complainant was arrested on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice."

Sounds about right. Cops have serious work to be doing. Don't waste their time with false charges.

[blade417 @ Jan 9th 2008 8:37AM]

Maybe he robbed himself?

Might be Schizo like on Me, Myself, and Irene.

[ClaMs @ Jan 9th 2008 5:03AM]

It's obvious, he has a split personality and Jackal stole it from Hyde you see. :)

Easy!

[francoiswiid @ Jan 9th 2008 5:55AM]

That's just some of the stuff that's going on here. The Police Force and Law in SA is a joke itself, not to mention the government. One of our prerequisites for being president is either murder, rape and fraud. The two previous presidents had jail time and our next in line is Jacob Zuma from Zimbabwe.....

For our previous presidents birthday, one of his unofficial birthday gifts to the country was setting 'not-so-hard-core' prisoners free because our jails are more than 300% full...

Site with some of SA's funny WTF occurrences: www.forvarkvleis.co.nr
Just "View The Proof"

[heney @ Jan 9th 2008 6:42AM]

hhhhhhhh

[kureshii @ Jan 9th 2008 7:54AM]

So... wherefore the 'criminal' tag? Is everyone who walks into a police station to report a stolen phone (his/hers or not) a criminal?

[DexterBelgium @ Jan 9th 2008 8:07AM]

Insurance fraud, do you speak it?

[DJWhiplash2001 @ Jan 9th 2008 8:24AM]

DEAR SIR,

HELLO I AM PRINCE OBJA MASTARAFU AND I HAVE RECENTLY BEEN IN SOME TROUBLE. I HAVE HAD MY MEANS OF COMMUNICATION TAKE FROM ME. THE GRACE OF GOD WILL SAVE ME.

PLS I WILL BE VERY MUCH HAPPY IF YOU SEND ME THE AMOUNT USD $4,300 DOLLARS FOR NEW PHONE FOR COMMUNICATE WITH MY DYING FATHER.

GOD BLESS.

[Jasonbot @ Jan 9th 2008 9:39AM]

He's South African, not Nigerian. I hate African generalisations

[DJWhiplash2001 @ Jan 9th 2008 10:20AM]

Not all 419 scams come from Nigeria. West and South Africa are actually the most common places that 419 scams originate from.

[AboveUnrefined @ Jan 9th 2008 8:30AM]

What a criminal.

[Zack Johnston @ Jan 9th 2008 9:09AM]

I would not say he is the "dumbest criminal", but perhaps rather the "dumbest victim".
What did he do that was illegal or criminal? Report a potential crime?
What he did was forgot to look in his coat pocket for his phone before he went to the police.

And insurance fraud? One has to fill out the insurance form first and report it before it is potentially fraud. He had not done that. And you really think this person even had insurance?

[Anthony @ Jan 9th 2008 10:28AM]

Uhh if you read the article you would notice he claimed he was held at gunpoint by a group of men and that they took his cell phone.

It wasn't like he just misplaced it and thought it was stolen.

[bachviet @ Jan 9th 2008 11:10AM]

More criminals like this guy would make the society safer.

[chou @ Jan 9th 2008 11:14AM]

I got it! He THOUGHT he lost his phone, and -- like for my cell plan -- in order to get a replacement phone for free, you have to fill out a police report, and he FIGURED it would look better on the police report if it were stolen at gun point, and so...

Oh, never mind... I guess "he was stupid" pretty much sums up anything I could come up with.

[wiedzmin @ Jan 9th 2008 1:00PM]

More like "Dumbest police story"... I want 30 seconds of my life back.

[Kevin @ Jan 10th 2008 5:20PM]

It could have also been that he wanted to get someone arrested, so he reports it to the police with a very good description of the "criminals" so that they would easily be arrested.

I'm sure it happens.

[h paul @ Jan 9th 2008 1:27PM]

why can't police just shoot these people in the head on sight?

[Jeff @ Jan 9th 2008 5:27PM]

paranoid schizophrenic?

[KOM @ Jan 10th 2008 3:11PM]

You need a police report to get a new phone from the insurance companies you pay 5 bucks a month for if it is lost or stolen.

[Griff @ Jan 11th 2008 10:59PM]

"[Ar]Rest assured, we've seen some brainless criminals in our day..."