1Glenn K. Tripp
Glenn K. Tripp was a D.B Cooper copycat, who hijacked a plane for a $600,000 ransom. He had his drink spiked with Valium by a flight attendant. After a 10-hour standoff, he lowered his ransom to 3 cheeseburgers and a head start on a getaway.
2. More than 5,000 babies across the United States were abducted by a supposedly charitable organization between 1924 and 1950. The group targeted poor Southern families and developed a black market for white babies.
3. When Dr. John Schneeberger was accused of sexual assault, he managed to beat three DNA tests by implanting a plastic tube filled with another man's blood in his arm. A more comprehensive test using hair and saliva samples resulted in a match. He was eventually convicted, jailed, and deported.
4. A hacker named Raphael Gray posted stolen data of over 6,500 credit cards online, claiming that the law enforcement was too incompetent to stop him. Gray's arrogance annoyed ex-hacker Chris Davis so much that he found Gray's information and informed the FBI about the crime, leading to Gray's arrest.
5. In 1926, popular pianist Fats Waller (then 21) was kidnapped by Al Capone's gang to play piano for his birthday. He basically went missing for 3 days and was returned unharmed but drunk.
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6John Leonard Orr
A serial arsonist named John Leonard Orr worked as an arson investigator and fire captain in California. He would sometimes commit arson on his way to and from arson investigator conferences. Before his arrest, he even wrote a novel about a firefighter who was a serial arsonist.
7. In the town of F*cking in Austria, the most reported crime always was theft of the ‘F*cking’ road signs. In 2005 they were replaced with antitheft ones and CCTV cameras to deter tourists from filming sex there. The Police chief once even said, “We won't stand for F*cking signs being removed. It may be amusing…but F*cking is simply F*cking to us.”
8. The kidnapping of 4-year-old American named Charley Ross in 1874 for ransom (first in US history) became a nationwide sensation. Charley, who was never found, was lured by two men offering candy and fireworks. This incident gave rise to the warning “never take candy from strangers.”
9. In 2002, a 7-year-old Philadelphia girl named Erica Pratt was abducted and locked in a basement. She managed to escape from her kidnappers in less than 24 hours by gnawing through the duct tape binding her hands and feet, kicking out a panel on the basement door, punching out a window, and then screaming for help.
10. In 1931, a man named William McBoyle stole an airplane but was acquitted on all charges because airplanes were not considered "vehicles" and there was no law against aircraft theft at that time.
11Kim Jong Il
Kim Jong Il once kidnapped the biggest South Korean director and movie star (who were also ex-husband and wife) and brought them to North Korea to make movies for him. They escaped by convincing him to let them go abroad to promote the North Korean film industry.
12. In 1998, a burglar stole a priceless diamond ornament (Sisi Sterne) originally belonging to empress Elisabeth of Austria, replacing it with a gift shop replica. Newspapers covered up the theft by claiming it had been speedily recovered and the fake remained on display for 10 years.
13. In 2002, three geriatric Catholic nuns broke into a US nuclear missile launch facility, vandalized the facility with hammers, and drew crosses on the silo with their own blood.
14. In 2007, Serbian vandals drove a stake into former president Slobodan Milosevic's grave to prevent him from coming back as a vampire.
15. In 2018, a major UK supermarket chain fond that shoplifters were using self-service checkouts to scan expensive fruit and vegetables as carrots. They were only discovered when the supermarket noticed they had sold more carrots than they’d ever had in stock.
16Temple of Artemis
One of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Temple of Artemis, was burned down by an arsonist who wished to be famous for his crime. Following his execution, the Ancient Greeks made it an offense subject to the death penalty to even mention his name.
17. A popular Japanese cat burglar was unmasked to be a 74-year-old pensioner named Mitsuaki Tanigawa, after 9 years’ worth of heists. He stole more than 29 million yen (£194,000) during his spree. When captured, he said: “I am defeated.”
18. The Stopwatch Gang were three Canadian bank robbers who were known for their brilliant planning of heists, politeness to victims, and non-violent methods all while robbing banks within 90 seconds.
19. Someone in Voronezh, Russia vandalized a Soviet-era monument not by destroying it, but by painting it to look like Patrick Star from Spongebob Squarepants.
20. The then-fugitive millionaire Robert Durst was arrested in 2001 for shoplifting a $5 sandwich, even though he had $500 of cash in his pockets.
21Black Bart
Black Bart was an outlaw who successfully robbed 28 stagecoaches and left this poem in one of them: “I've labored long and hard for bread / For honor, and for riches / But on my corns too long you've tread / You fine-haired sons of b*tches.”
22. Peter Scott who was nicknamed “master idiot” was a burglar whose victims include Sophia Loren and the Shah of Iran. Once when he was disturbed during a heist by a woman, he shouted “Everything’s all right, madam” and she went off to bed thinking he was the butler. On other occasions, he would reassuringly shout “It’s only me!”
23. In 1927, there was a bank robber dressed as Santa Claus who was responsible for the death of 6 people during his robbery and getaway. When he was caught and thrown in jail, nearly 2,000 people showed up, pushed past the guards, dragged him out of the jail and hanged him.
24. There is a Guinness world record for "greatest robbery of a government", currently held by the dictator of the Philippines F.Marcos and his wife Imelda. It is estimated that they have embezzled up to $10 billion of which only $860 million have been recovered.
25. In 1950, four students from Glasgow stole the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey and smuggled it back to Scotland in a Ford Anglia. The stone, also called the Coronation Stone, is the stone upon which British royalty is crowned, and was taken by the English from Scotland in 1296.