World Most Stupid Criminals

Two men from Skegness, Lincolnshire, who took photographs of themselves stealing thousands of pounds from gambling machines, have been sentenced by a judge at Bradford Crown Court. Benjamin Robinson, 30, was jailed for 32 months, while Daniel Hutchinson was given a six-month suspended sentence after they admitted taking the cash.

Armed robber Andrew Hennells was caught after he boasted on Facebook about his plans to raid a supermarket in a post which included a selfie, a picture of a knife, and the words: “Doing. Tesco. Over.” Police caught him 15 minutes later with the knife and £410 in cash stolen from a Tesco in King’s Lynn, Norfolk. He was jailed for four years last April.

A retired couple from Lancashire returned home from a holiday in 2014 to discover a burglar fast asleep in their bed. Martin Holtby and Pat Dyson were amazed to find the intruder, Lukasz Chojnowski, had done their dishes, washed his underwear and even bought some groceries. Ms Dyson said their house “wasn’t too tidy” when they went away, but Chojnowski – who is originally from Poland but moved to Leeds – had kindly tidied up.

Two Welsh tourists landed themselves in court in 2012 after they got drunk and stole a penguin called Dirk from Sea World in Australia. Rhys Owen Jones, 21, and Keri Mules, 20, from south Wales, broke into the park on Queensland’s Gold Coast, swam with the dolphins and let off a fire extinguisher in the shark enclosure, before making off with poor Dirk. When they woke up – hung-over and with the flightless bird in their apartment – they tried “their incompetent best” to care for him by feeding him and putting him in the shower, the court heard.

A man suspected of arson and vandalism sent a selfie to police in Ohio in the US because he found the photo on his arrest warrant to be unflattering. Donald “Chip” Pugh texted police a photo of himself and wrote: “Here is a better photo that one is terrible”. He told a local radio station: “Man, they just did me wrong. They put a picture out that made me look like I was a Thundercat… or James Brown on the run. I can’t do that”.