What really shocked me was that they were stupid enough to do this when it was obvious that we were home. They didn't have weapons, or even tools, so what was the point?
Some of them are so stupid it hurts just trying to contemplate their thought processes. Burglary is not that complicated of a crime to pull off. If they do it more than a couple of times they will all eventually get caught when they make a mistake or are unlucky. Don't be seen, don't leave fingerprints all over the place, and don't hock the stuff in some way that it will be traced back to you.
Some of them are not stupid, despite being dumb enough to think they can get away with it forever. Sometimes guys like that can amass quite a string of crimes before they get caught.
When I was a detective I cleared several hundred burglary cases on one defendant. He was in the county jail awaiting transfer to the penitentiary and he had no commissary money. In exchange for cigarettes and coffee (and no additional charges) he agreed to show me every burglary he had done in the city (he had already done the same for a county detective who was a friend of mine). The guy had an amazing memory for details, so I made him prove each case to me by detailing something unique about what he stole or saw inside each home. I could have cleared more cases than I did, but as it was it took me weeks to write all of the supplemental reports to clear the cases.
He had just finished showing me the locations of 50-60 apartment burglaries when suddenly he remembered something and told us to turn down a dead-end street. There was a small townhome complex of 8-10 units and he commenced to admitting to burglarizing all of them except
one.
We were sitting in the parking lot while I was scribbled notes when I noticed a couple leaving the unit that doofus had
not burgled. The guy immediately knocked us off and almost as quickly I recognized him as a cop from my agency that I had seen around. We got to talking, and after I explained what was going on, he said
"That's got to be the SOB that stole my guns!"
When I got back in the car I asked doofus if he was sure he hadn't made a clean sweep in the complex.
"No sir, I hit all of 'em except that one there. I meant to, just never quite got around to it though."
He was dumb enough to be a crook, just not a real stupid one.
