Just for Fun: Mail Thief FAIL!

A mail thief walks into an apartment building in Brooklyn, pries open some mailboxes and steals the mail. Before he leaves he steals the surveillance camera too, but not before removing the tape. He dumps the security tape at the scene of the crime, because what’s he going to do with it? Unfortunately for him, the tape included some footage of his distinctive tattoos that ultimately landed him back in jail. FAIL!

Found in New York Magazine here:

Robber Makes One Mistake in Otherwise Flawless Theft of Security Camera

Stolen mail isn’t what it used to be, Amado Cintron thought to himself as he pried open two mailboxes in an apartment building in Bushwick on a recent Wednesday afternoon. The credit-card companies aren’t as good about sending cards out willy-nilly anymore, and even grandmas seem to have wised up to the fact that you shouldn’t put cash in the mail. At best, you end up with some Netflix and a few coupons for Bed Bath & Beyond. Bo-ring. Then, Amado looked up, his shifty eyes catching the security camera. Now THAT would be worth something, he thought to himself. Sweltering in the midday heat, he removed his shirt and, MacGuyver-like, hopped up and used the tools he had brought to pry the camera off its mount. It came off fairly easily, Amado was pleased to see. He hopped back down triumphantly. He was a genius, he thought to himself as he removed the camera’s tape — on which cops would later see Amado and the two large angel tattoos on his back that identify the already convicted felon as such, committing two kinds of crimes— set it to one side (because who needs an old, used tape?), and went on his way.

Originally from the New York Post Police Blotter:

Half-clever can be all stupid.

An intruder snatched a surveillance camera before committing a property crime in a Bushwick building but left a key piece of evidence — the videotape, police said.

The video shows Amado Cintron, 20, using a tool to break into two mailboxes in the building at Greene and Wyckoff avenues sometime between 4:30 p.m. last Wednesday and 8 a.m. the next morning, authorities said.

The tape also shows a shirtless Cintron, with two large angel tattoos on his back, prying the camera off its mount, sources said.

Police arrested Cintron Monday on charges of burglary, trespassing and criminal mischief, said a spokesman for DA Charles Hynes.