SALUTE 2 MEATBALL CRIMINALS (8-12-09)

A GUY STOLE $25,000 WORTH OF STUFF FROM HIS NEIGHBOR . . . THEN TRIED TO SELL IT AT A YARD SALE TWO DAYS LATER:

Police officers have an incredibly difficult job, so they must love it when an idiot criminal does all the work for them, like THIS guy . . . Last week, awoman from Severn, Maryland called the police to report that someone had broken into her house and taken $25,000 worth of stuff. So the police filed a report and started an investigation.

But just two days later, the woman called the cops again to report that her neighbor, 46-year-old David Perticone, was holding a yard sale . . . and SELLING ALL HER STUFF. The cops showed up and arrested David.

He's been charged with first-degree burglary and fourth-degree burglary and theft. If he's convicted, he could get up to 23 YEARS in prison.

(The only thing I don't get is how David figured he was going to get away with this. I mean, unless he thought his neighbor was BLIND, it just doesn't make sense. Of course, I suppose that's the beauty of it.) (WBAL News 11- Baltimore)

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A GUY IN CALIFORNIA WAS TRYING TO SELL A 37-INCH FLAT-SCREEN TV . . . THAT WAS ACTUALLY AN OVEN DOOR IN DISGUISE:

I understand that times are tough right now and that we're all doing what we can to get by, but THIS is just not cool . . . --Last week, 52-year-old Anthony Myles of Richmond, California was arrested for driving on a suspended license. But the reason Anthony was pulled over in the first place is much more interesting.

Get this . . . --It seems Anthony had been hanging out in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart trying to sell a 37-inch flat-screen TV for $100 . . . which is a great price. Except that it WASN'T actually a flat-screen TV Anthony was trying to sell. It was a GLASS OVEN DOOR that he'd disguised with stickers and other nonsense to make it LOOK like a flat-screen TV.

According to the cop who arrested Anthony, quote, "It was very ingenious. If you were a bargain hunter, you might think, 'Wow, this is the deal of the day.'" (Oakland Tribune)

(--And that is exactly why you don't buy electronics, or anything else for that matter, out of the back of a truck, no matter how good the deal sounds.)

(--Check out a photo of the oven door Anthony was trying to pass off as a TV . . .)