25 criminals who were “given away” by a random detail (26 photos)

No matter how resourceful and cunning criminals are, facts show that sometimes the most ridiculous detail or random confession can give them away. The stories of criminals from this collection are about just that. Let's take a look at famous cases of crimes that were solved almost by chance.





1. Rapper Nuke Bizzle stole $700,000 and then made a gorgeous video about a rich life. In the video, the police saw documents about his fraud - and he was sent to prison



2. The Dunbar Robbery is the largest cash robbery in US history. On September 12, 1997, six men robbed Dunbar Armored, an armored vehicle manufacturing plant, in Los Angeles for $18.9 million.





The criminals entered the building and neutralized the guards without firing a single shot or raising the alarm. The police had no clue. Only 2 years after the robbery, one of the thieves paid a real estate broker with a wad of money tied with paper with the Dunbar Armored stamp. This was a fatal mistake because the broker immediately reported it to the police. During interrogation, the thief admitted to the robbery and betrayed his partners.

3. After a major California bank robbery in 1972, the police reached the headquarters of a criminal gang. The criminals forgot one detail



Before leaving, the criminals cleaned the house to a shine - but forgot to turn on the dishwasher. The police were able to match all their fingerprints to the dirty dishes, and the robbers were found.

4. Billionaire and heir to a real estate empire, Robert Durst, was found guilty of murdering his girlfriend. He accidentally confessed to the crime while filming a documentary about himself.



During the filming of the documentary, Durst denied any involvement in the murder of his friend Susan Berman. However, he forgot that he was wearing a microphone. When he went into the restroom after filming, he began muttering to himself: "What the hell did I do? Of course I killed them all!" After this, the police arrested the billionaire.

5. “Friday Robber” Karl Gugasyan - one of the most famous in the USA



American Carl Gugasian, or the "Friday Robber", was a martial arts instructor and had a master's degree in analytical disciplines. He developed his own system of bank robberies: just before closing time, he would arrive at the banks on a motorcycle, take the money, return on the motorcycle to the truck, place the motorcycle in the truck, and calmly leave. The police could not track him down until one day random local residents stumbled upon a cache in the forest with his things: a pistol, gloves, a mask, money, etc.

6. Artist Wolfgang Beltracchi admitted to forging hundreds of paintings worth millions of euros



He once accidentally got himself "burnt" when he used paint that contained a substance that was not used in the original artist's time.

7. Harold Shipman, an ordinary doctor, turned out to be a serial killer. He may have accounted for up to 250 victims



"Doctor Death" diagnosed his patients with diseases they did not have - and then administered a lethal dose of diamorphine. Most often, his victims were elderly female patients. He was once suspected by a hospital worker: he was worried about the large number of cremation forms for elderly patients, and he decided to contact the police.

8. A fertility specialist in Indiana, US, used his own sperm to fertilize his patients' eggs in the 1980s.



Thus he became the father of 94 children. He was identified decades later when one of his patient's children took a DNA test and discovered seven of his half-siblings.

9. The most creative bank robbery



One robber from the United States recruited people and asked them to come to the bank building at a specified time in the same clothes as him. The thief grabbed the bag of money from the hands of the collector and disappeared into the crowd of his “clones”. Then he was turned in by a homeless man who saw him approach the bank the day before the robbery.

10. One Italian gang stole $100 million worth of gems. After the robbery, they got rid of the masks and used tools, but one of the gang members was too lazy to burn it all



Among the trash, police found envelopes from the Antwerp Diamond Center and a receipt for a sandwich bought at a nearby store. Later they caught the organizer of the robbery, who did not give up his accomplices - but some of them were still found. Some of the stolen diamonds have still not been found.

11. Knightsbridge robbery



This happened in the London area of ​​Knightsbridge in 1987. The gang leader cut himself while breaking into cells - there was too much blood, so fearing arrest, he immediately fled to South America with the stolen 60 million pounds. It was only later, when he decided to return to England to collect his Ferrari, that he was arrested.

12. Polish writer Christian Bala killed a man and went unpunished



He wrote a book detailing what he did. Sales of this book increased after he was convicted.

13. About 90% of the fires in the Los Angeles area were caused by a serial arsonist who worked in the fire department.



It was discovered by accident when the police were investigating an arson case. He vigorously insisted that the fire was not caused by accidental combustion and argued heatedly with his colleagues. His fingerprints were then found at the scene.

14. A young Australian hacked the FBI website and posted photos of himself on their website.



The guy removed the metadata from the photos so as not to show the location, and then accidentally uploaded the original, forgetting to erase the metadata - that's how it was discovered.

15. In the 1920s, two guys with high IQs from Chicago committed a murder - and thought they were too smart for the police to get to them.



This duo is known as Loeb and Leopold. The guys really calculated everything, but one detail gave them away - one of them lost the glass from his glasses when they got rid of the body. The police still tracked them down.

16. The perpetrator of the terrorist attack in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995 was identified using a forgotten check.



Timothy McVeigh is the organizer of the terrorist attack on the Alfred Murray Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. He used his real name instead of a pseudonym when he once ordered Chinese food and left the receipt in his hotel room. Employees noticed the name discrepancy and reported it to the police.

17. Theodore Kaczynski, nicknamed the “Unabomber,” sent sixteen parcels of explosives from 1978 to 1995



As a result of his terrorist attacks, three people were killed and another 23 were injured. The Unabomber claimed that he was an anarchist and wanted to spark a revolution against high-tech American society. On April 3, 1996, the criminal was arrested at his hideout. His younger brother David gave him away - he and his wife suspected that Theodore's handwriting was very similar to the killer's. In the end, all suspicions turned out to be true.

18. Ariel Castro kidnapped and brutally killed three girls whom he kept in his home for more than 11 years



One day, when Castro was leaving home, he forgot to close the door. One of the girls, Amanda Berry, was able to run outside and ask a passerby for the phone to call the police.

19. In 1969, Ted Conrad walked out of a bank in Cleveland, USA, with $215,000 in cash. He was never caught



He lived the rest of his life as a free man in Boston, and just before his death he confessed to his family what he had done.

20. Willie Sutton was one of the most famous bank robbers



During his “career” he stole about two million dollars. Sutton was caught when his car broke down - he bought a sandwich, and the employees recognized him.

21. Salim Kara single-handedly stole $2.3 million



He successfully hid for 13 years until he bought a house for $1 million in the early 90s - then he was discovered.

22. The famous gangster Al Capone was caught not because of criminal activity, but because of tax evasion



23. Susan Lee Smith drowned her two sons in 1994



The woman drowned her children in the lake along with the car - and then claimed that the car was stolen by a black man while the traffic light was red. However, the traffic light gave her away. One of the sheriffs found out that at the intersection where Susan’s car was “stolen,” the light was always green, and the red light only appeared when another car was approaching the intersection. And according to the mother, there were no cars nearby. Then Susan could not stand the sheriff's accusations, and revealed in detail the whole truth about her crime.

24. Charles Schmid killed two teenage girls



After the murder, Schmid asked his best friend to help him bury the bodies. Two weeks later, a friend reported him to the police.

25. Israel Keyes - perhaps the most prescient serial killer in history



He spent a long time studying the stories of other serial killers and how they were caught. He also spent months planning his crimes. Unlike most serial killers, he chose his victims at random. His mobile phone was always turned off, and he only paid for purchases in cash. Keyes was caught when he kidnapped a girl and tried to extort ransom from her parents: police tracked him down through a bank transfer and a car that appeared on surveillance cameras.