Guilty? Mostly Just Stupid

The media often portrays criminals as warped master-minds, or at least uncaring creeps. A less popular, but more true to form characterization would be just-plain-stupid.

Aspiring criminal master-minds, the husband and wife team of Alan and Basilia Gonzalez, were able to round up "four to six accomplices" according to KXAN, but we wouldn't go so far as to call it an organized burglary ring. A moniker like that implies some rudimentary level of common sense that these common crooks could not grasp.

The group's plan was so crazy it might just work, or not. They targeted their own neighborhood, the area around Manchaca Road and Stassney Lane in South Austin, where they stole tens of thousands of dollars worth of their neighbors belongings and later sold them at a pawn shop down the street. Genius! Who would suspect?

In what may have been a carefully calculated psy-ops move intended to spread confusion among police investigators, many houses were robbed repeatedly in a short period of time despite the fact that hardly anything valuable was left after the initial robbery. Cunning!

Their unconventional tactic of using the cover of broad daylight inconceivably backfired when neighbors saw them kicking in front doors and tossing items over fences. For shame.