Ridiculous Crime

This was one helluva year! As life in a pandemic returned to a semblance of normalcy, criminals also got back to work. In many cases the results were predictably ridiculous. To review the felonious year that was, here’s a rundown of the Top Ten Most Ridiculous Crimes of 2022! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Many kids dream of becoming astronauts, but only a select few actually make it their profession. And even fewer manage to blow that chance. And only one threw away his dreams of space travel in a truly ridiculous way: stealing moon rocks from work in order to say he'd had sex on the moon. Literally. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

That one time when the Black Panthers, the militant Weather Underground and the surf mafia The Brotherhood of Eternal Love came together to free a psychedelic charlatan See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Strip clubs, crooked politicians, cash payoffs, FBI raids, ski school. It's a Vegas corruption story like no other! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mayhem, chaos and international hijinks ensue after three Italian brothers, led by their super-patriotic older brother, break into the Louvre and steal the Mona Lisa for the glory of Italia. The frantic French police search high and low for the stolen masterpiece, they even drag in Picasso and JP Morgan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Guy meets girl. Guy loses girl. Guy learns to rob banks. Guy robs banks. Guy likes to look fly. Guy gets arrested. Guy escapes prison. Guy gets caught again. Guy writes memoirs. Guy inspires generations of medical students to better diagnose patients?  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Born the son of a shepherd, inspired by highwaymen bandits of the mountains, Vassilis Palaiokostas grew up to be a criminal legend known as the Greek Robin Hood. From his daring helicopter prison escapes to his bank-robbery-funded luxurious life on the lam, he’s known for his deep love of Greek guitar music, stolen German cars, and, of course, freedom. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy infor...

What do you get when you mix crooked cops, violent firemen, a rollicking bordello, hardboiled clowns, and sectarian violence? You get something wildly ridiculous, that's what. Zaron is still missing, so Producer Dave steps in again and saves the day. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Who among us hasn’t daydreamed of being Steve McQueen for a day? For a 20-year-old community college student, fancy liquors and semi-exotic cars weren’t enough to scratch the dangerous cool guy itch. Only a major bank heist in tribute to McQueen’s own biggest big screen caper would do. So why are we just hearing about it now? Producer Dave Coustan takes the wheel and fills us in. See omnystudio.co...

Only the greatest con man could take Mussolini for $2M, run a totally fake casino, fix horse races, pose as a well-known mining engineer, and then write a book about it all. Oh, and look super dapper along the way. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ron and Scott were brothers, a pair of SoCal surf kids growing up in the ‘60s. They were into the usual stuff: peace, love, catching waves, international drug smuggling, making phony films as a cover for illicit activities, hanging out with Jimi Hendrix in Hawai`i, fooling Porsche into agreeing to a fake car race. You know, just brotherly fun. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When your only crime is curiosity, is it still illegal to hack into government computer systems in search of information about UFOs? Yes. Yes, it is.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You’re young, you’re hawt, you’re used to getting paid for it as an Instagram influencer – so why not turn pro and get paid for it overseas? But suddenly you’re now an international cocaine smuggler… how did this happen?! (🎵 Life on the Coke  Boat, surely make you lose your mind 🎶) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pranks! Some are clever. Some are fun. Some are a little lame. And some manage to create an historical thread from Virginia Woolf to Silvio Berlusconi.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two great tastes that taste great together: horse racing and fraternity brothers. What happens when three frat bros attempt to rig the biggest horse race in America? They all win a free yet priceless education in how not to commit a crime. And it’s all thanks to a long shot horse named Volponi. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Regional delicacies are a hot market and a point of pride. Tucson's Sonoran Hot Dogs are a prime example. But are they worthy of extortion and death threats? One guy sure thought so. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

They can barely see over the steering wheel, they can’t reach the pedals, many can’t even read, but they don’t let that stop them. Kids will steal the dardenest things — like Mom’s SUV. These criming kids all went big, they each tried to drive cross-country! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trains. It was an outrageous caper to end all capers: stealing millions from a train (and maybe a little of the train, too). What could go wrong? Well, a lot. But a fair bit also went right. Trains. And thanks to all that, we have a dope television theme song. Makes sense, don't it? And trains.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

2 Texas colleges.  1 two-hundred pound owl.  Mix in 1200 cadets and their bull sergeants versus a team of football players and tracks stars, stir in as many trains, trucks, and cars as can be found, and garnish with two private dicks, one named Snowball. That’s called a TAMU over Rice. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the true story of five strangers picked to target a mark, work together, and have their lives taped to find out what happens when people stop criming in secret...and start getting loot for the sake of entertainment. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Friedland was a corrupt, mob-connected, LSD-munching, undercover FBI informant and New Jersey state lawmaker, until one day he faked his death and became a scuba diving instructor. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Choose a job. Choose Australia. Choose a gross hostel. Choose some friends. Choose a crate. Choose a pee bottle. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got trains? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is it kidnapping if you’re the kid who naps himself? Do FBI informants have a bring your kid to work day? It’s David Hampton Butler Jr. vs David Hampton Butler Sr. in a Florida Man battle of the ages. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When a pastor went missing after giving a series of talks about the devil, everyone who knew him was certain Satanists were to blame. But what if the devil in this story was actually the little devil on that pastor's shoulder urging him to find a new life? Guess what...it was. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sen. Estes Kefauver was outraged by a crime: the poisoning of the minds of American children. He spied a vile new threat introduced by Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman –– to him, the superheroes were secretly agents of fascism. The lawmaker knew the best way to fight back and save America's children was to call the press and form... a Senate Subcommittee! (Cue the moral panic in 3, 2, 1..) See om...