Man On A Ledge

When I initially saw the previews this looked like a pretty dumb movie.  I saw the preview again and got somewhat intrigued by it.  I took my time getting around to actually watching it though and when I finally did sit down to it, I was enjoyed it quite a lot.

The movie is about Nick Cassidy, an ex cop who was sent to prison for stealing an enormous diamond and supposedly selling it off in pieces.  He escapes from prison right at the beginning of the movie and checks into a hotel and goes out on the ledge as a jumper to try to protest his innocence, hence the movie title.  I can admit that there was some immediate action but then a fairly slow start and a plan that didn't not seem overly thought out.  However as you delve deeper into the movie you notice things such as how great Elizabeth Banks is doing at playing a character that is not exploring her humorous side.  I was impressed with her ability to pull off the serious cop psychologist character.  I must say that the last half of the movie is the greatest and the ending half an hour makes the entire movie worth watching.  I actually found that some events were not as predictable as in many movies, and I think that the delivery went well.  There were definitely some shaky parts in the middle and some holes in the side story that never got fully filled in.  But the last part definitely jumped the ratings up in my book.  I give this movie 3 and a half to 4 stars out of 5.  Definitely not the greatest movie you will ever watch, but entertaining none-the-less and better than many movies I have seen lately.  Not to mention I love Sam Worthington from Avatar who has a nice voice to listen to :)  Ed Harris always plays a great bad guy to me as well.

It got about a little over a 50% approval rating and was ranked 5th when in the theater.  Worth a see on a lazy afternoon or when you can't sleep at night.

Dumb Criminals Part 2: Robbers at their "Best"

Let's start by talking about people that actually commit crimes.  You would think that if you are going to commit yourself to something that could potentially lead to jail time or possibly even death if things go really bad that you would want to do at least a little bit of research before you go in. 


With that being said let's talk about our first dumb criminal of the evening.  A 28 year old man named Christopher Allen Koch decided that he was going to rob a bank.  I am sure it started out with a desperate times call for desperate measures type of ordeal and then a "plan" was hatched.  The bank that he was attempting to rob was in Liberty, PA.  What he didn't think to check before choosing the Bank was the operating hours.  Reportedly he sat in his car for about 20 minutes, probably psyching himself up for it and then decided to go through with it.  This particular bank closed at 12:00 and by the time he got out of the car to go up to the door, it was 12:01.  Oh wait, did I mention that he came up to the door wearing a ski mask and gloves and had a gun on him.  So he is out in broad daylight for everyone to see.  The employees saw him and reported his license plate number to police who were able to arrest him for attempted robbery.  If only he had looked at the door to see the operating hours, or had the sense of mind to wait until he was inside to put on the mask, or even to have gone inside when he first got there instead of waiting 20 minutes....  But if he was that smart he probably wouldn't be robbing a bank in the first place....

Dumb Bank Robber Turns Up Too Late

Since we are already on the topic of robbery, let's take a look at the burglar who wrote his own name at the crime scene.  In the UK, an 18 year old names Peter Addison and a friend vandalized a children's campsite building and set off fire extinguishers.  He actually wrote "Peter Addison Was
Here" on a wall.  If that wasn't enough to ensure that everyone knew who had done the handiwork, he also wrote his associated gang's name on the wall.  Police were able to locate him after looking him up online. 

Daft Burglar Writes Own Name on Wall




Looks Like Burglary is the hot topic of the evening.  Our next criminals robbed a bank in Vail, Colorado.  Two Australian bank robbers have been dubbed Dumb & Dumber after jokingly taking pictures of themselves with the stolen cash in a McDonald's bathroom.  Their celebration didn't last long as they were captured the next day.  They left behind a plethora of clues which easily lead the police straight to them.  The men, Anthony Prince and Luke Carrol made it "laughably easy" for the
police to capture them.  Here's why: First off they wore ski masks but robbed their own bank that they frequented and were well known by their Australian accents in a Colorado bank.  The tellers were easily able to identify them on this alone.  If that wasn't enough, they were also visibly wearing their name tags from the sports store where they were employed.  That same day they attempted to buy airline tickets to Mexico with the stolen money.  Wow, these guys REALLY didn't plan well at all.

Dumb & Dumber Take Their Own Mugshots




Let's talk about another dumb attempted robber.  Have you ever heard the adage "You don't take a knife to a gun fight?"  Well, in Beaverton, OR a man named Derek Mosley decided to do one better.  He thought it would be a great plan to rob a gun store with a baseball bat.  Most likely he was under the impression that the guns being sold aren't loaded.  The only part of this that was possibly a good plan was that there was the possibility of a lot of money being in a gun store.  However he forgot about concealed carry laws.  Mr. Mosley decides to walk into a discount gun store and walks up to a display case and smashes it to steal a gun inside.  I have no idea why he thought that everyone would just sit around and be ok about this because he had a baseball bat....  The employee working behind
the counter took out his personal firearm and directed Mosley to drop the baseball bat and the gun that he had grabbed.  Wait, it gets better, apparently Mosley also had a knife on him that he dropped, so he really DID try to bring a knife to a gun fight....  By the time the cops showed up he was already on the floor at gunpoint ready for the handcuffs.  Wow... just wow....

Guy fails miserably at robbing a gun store with a baseball bat

Last but not least I leave you with a candidate for one of the worst robbers ever.  55 year old Harry Williams from Tempe, AZ decided for whatever reason that he was going to rob an Ace Hardware Store.  He walks into the store put his hand under his shirt and tells the employee at the cash register that he has a gun under his shirt and wants all of the money in the register.  The cashier told Mr. Williams that he didn't have any money in the register and wouldn't give it to him even if he did.  Williams asks the cashier to prove that there is no money in the register by opening it and letting him see.  The cashier tells him no and Williams walks out of the store.  Apparently the cashier was not convinced about William's "gun".  Not to be deterred, Williams decided to go across the street to the
Safeway.   He again tried to convince the cashier of his possession of a gun and again failed miserably.  Williams was escorted out of the building.  Williams waited a few minutes before sneaking back into the store and stuffing a sausage into his pants....  the dirty jokes are endless here...  Shortly after stealing the sausage he was discovered by police and they discovered that he actually did have a knife on him that he never used.  Apparently the judge felt bad enough for him that his sentence was greatly reduced. 

Candidate for Worst Robber Ever

Incriminating Themselves: Dumb Criminals Part 1

Many criminals end up self incriminating themselves.  The other day I read about a gang member that was caught due to the intricate detail of a tattoo on his own body about a murder he has committed that had been unsolved for years.  Now there is another man whose rap lyrics led to an arrest.... A girl who posted a YouTube video bragging about robbing a bank... Are these people too over-confident or too ignorant to keep from getting caught?  Or are they just ready to be caught?  Not that I don't want criminals to pay for their crimes, but these people are one short cry from the Darwin awards?  *The Darwin awards are presented each year about people who die or come close to death due to their own stupidity.

First I am going to go over the rap lyrics that lead to an arrest in an unsolved murder in Virginia.  Police were able to solve a double murder from 2007 due to rap lyrics, within these lyrics the rapper Twain Gotti aka Antwain Steward made a song describing the murder.  The song was called "Ride Out" and lyrics are as follows: “Listen, walk to your boy and I approached him, 12 midnight on his traphouse porch and everybody saw when I [expletive] smoked him, roped him, sharpened up the shank then I poked him, 357 Smith & Wesson [unintelligible] scoped him,” Police believe that this was a gang related killing and Mr. Steward was already considered a subject but until he incriminated himself in the song there was not enough evidence to tie him to the murder.   I also want to point out the fact that the gang he was affiliated with was called Wickzoo....  Need I say more?  For the full story you can follow the link: Rap lyrics lead to arrest in unsolved murder

 

News video featuring part of the song "Ride Out"

Now let's talk about stupid criminals and tattoos.  Recently a gang member was picked up on a minor offense and had his tattoos photographed for record.  He was apparently so proud and confident of his work in the unsolved murder that he had many details unreleased to the public graphically depicted within his tattoo.  Unfortunately for him a detective that had worked on the original unsolved case happened to now be working in the department that had photographed his tattoos and came across the incriminating evidence.   This man was in a Los-Angeles gang called Rivera-13(affiliated with MS-13?)  The murder occurred in 2004 at a liquor store and the tattoo graphically showed specific lighting around the store and depicted a peanut being killed (peanuts are routinely used to represent rival gang members).  The tattoo also shows a chopper gunning down the peanut.  The man Anthony Garcia went by the name Chopper in his gang. 

"Each key detail was right there: the Christmas lights that lined the roof of the liquor store where 23-year-old John Juarez was gunned down, the direction his body fell, the bowed street lamp across the way and the street sign — all under the chilling banner of RIVERA KILLS, a reference to the gang Rivera-13.
As if to seal the deal, below the collarbone of the gang member known by the alias "Chopper" was a miniature helicopter raining down bullets on the scene." Shortly after being picked up and taken to the police station he confessed to the killing.  For the full story you can see: gang tattoo leads to arrest or also los angeles gang member convicted on tattoo

Moving on to a Nebraska teen who was convicted of robbing a bank thanks to a YouTube video she uploaded about it.  She titled the video "Chick Bank Robbery."   In the video she brags about stealing a car as well as robbing the bank.  To further self incriminate herself she shows off the money that she got from the bank (over $6K) as well as showing her smoking a full bowl of weed in the video.  She must have made the video right away because apparently she is wearing the same clothes in the YouTube video that she wore when she robbed the bank.  The video is a written confession to the crime and claims to be a victim of the government.  In the written confession she decides to mention "fun facts" about herself including the facts that she is married, pregnant, and has AIDS. 
You can read the full story here: Chick Bank Robber

"Chick Bank Robber"