Pro Tip: If You're Going To Break And Enter Someone's Home, Don't Log Into Your Facebook

Stupidity

from the feeling-stupid dept

In the history of the dumb criminals we’ve written about, it’s been quite difficult to stave off the temptation to label each and every one of them “the dumbest criminal.” This should be understandable to anyone who has read these stories, what with all the self-incrimination, Google-searching for tips on how to commit their crimes, and the taunting of LEOs. That said, I don’t know that I’ve ever experienced the temptation quite so strongly as I am with this knucklehead breaking into someone’s home, logging into his facebook account on the victim’s computer, and failing to log back out.

See, when James Wood returned to his Minnesota home one day, he found the house ransacked with tons of his stuff missing. In their place appeared to be only some wet clothes and shoes.

“I started to panic,” he said. “But then I noticed he had pulled up his Facebook profile.”

Wood posted to Facebook using Wig’s profile, saying Wig had burglarized his home. He even shared his phone number to see if someone would call with information. Wig texted him later that day.

Yeah, that seriously happened. Not only did Nicholas Wig, a 26 year old man with ostensibly enough brain-power to lift himself out of bed in the morning, leave his Facebook account logged into his victim’s computer, he actually responded to the messages Wood was inputting into his profile and contacted the phone number Wood left in hopes of catching the guy. Wood informed Wig that he’d left his clothes and shoes at his house when he was doing the world’s dumbest Ocean’s Eleven impression and offered to return them in exchange for some of the stolen items. But, I mean, come on. Nobody’s that stupid, right?

Wig agreed to meet with Wood later that night. Wood believes Wig was under the impression he would give him back some of his clothes he had left at his home in exchange for a recycled cell phone Wig had stolen. Wood, at his friend’s house, left for home. On his way back to his house he saw and recognized Wig, from his Facebook profile, walking on the street. He immediately called police.

“I’ve never seen this before,” Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said. “It’s a pretty unusual case, might even make the late night television shows in terms of not being too bright.”

Oh. I, uh, appear to have been mistaken. Someone is that dumb and that someone’s name is Nicholas Wig. But, hey, you know, maybe this is all some kind of misunderstanding. I mean, it’s not like someone who actually stole stuff from a person would then return to the freaking scene of the crime to meet that same person, right?

Wig was wearing Wood’s watch when he found him. Police arrested him at the scene.

And just like that, a criminal defense attorney somewhere in Minnesota was handed a not-of-sound-mind defense.

Filed Under: crime, criminals, social media