Driven to Foolishness

Ryan VanPuymbrouck, 20, and Tyler Hale, 24, of upper Wisconsin, were on a joy ride this past January, in Tyler's girlfriend's fairly-new 2014 Ford Focus. They could see many shacks littered across the frozen lake where they lived. These shacks are temporary ice-fishing locations during the winter months and are safe because of the thickness of the ice. The crooks came up with a stupid idea of going from shack to shack, stealing anything they wanted. When it was time to leave, they forgot which way they came in, and got a little lost. Next thing they knew, they were near the middle of the lake, on thin ice. Crack! As the ice started to break, the two crooks managed to escape before the lake swallowed up the car. They alerted a fisherman, who contacted police. At first, the freezing crooks tried to make up a story, but they were so cold they eventually blurted out the truth. As soon as they had warmed up a bit, the police arrested them and sent them to the cooler. But the cooler was a lot warmer than the lake!

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In Chicago, on the day after Christmas, Jereh Brown received a ride from a caring driver. When the car came to a stop, he forced the woman out and stole the car! Several days later, Brown called the owner of the car, Erin Antonietti, and said that he would sell the car back to her for $50. Oh, how nice! Erin agreed and immediately notified police, who escorted her to pick up her car. Sure enough, Brown, eager for the fast cash, was there. Erin got her car back, and the police caught the dumb crook!

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