Calif. Man Pulls Gun on Girl Selling Cookies

(Newser) – No more Thin Mints for this guy: A California man has been arrested for allegedly pointing a gun at a young girl who was selling cookies door-to-door. Police say that when the girl knocked on the door of John Dodrill, 59, he answered with a gun pointed at her, the Los Angeles Times reports. The girl's father witnessed the incident and called police, who arrested Dodrill and confiscated the weapon. Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio issued a statement saying the incident is the first of its kind in its 90-year history in the area and stressing that girls are trained to never sell cookies without an adult present unless they are senior scouts, ABC7 reports.

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Would-Be Crooks Stymied by Door, Stick Shift

(Newser) – Two stories this week of would-be criminals thwarted by ... themselves: In Massachusetts, a delivery driver was delivering a food order when three men, one with a knife, approached him. They took the food and his keys, but when they got into his car ... "not one of them knew how to drive a stick-shift car," an aide to the police commissioner tells the Springfield Republican. They argued, then ran off; the incident is still under investigation.In Chicago, a man managed to pry the lock off the front door of The Shambles bar in Wicker Park early Friday. But he failed to open the door ... because he was pulling it, despite the fact that there is a sticker on the door clearly marked "PUSH," DNAinfo reports. He gave up; the incident, which was caught on surveillance video, is under review.

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Woman's DUI Leads to Ridiculous Chain of DUIs

(Newser) – It would be comical if it weren't so pathetic: Police in Readington Township, NJ, have reported the most bizarre chain of events, beginning with a 1:45am stop on Monday. A patrolman pulled over a car that was swerving, and smelled alcohol emanating from it, reports the Express-Times. The driver, Carmen Reategui, 34, failed the field sobriety tests he administered. So she was hauled off to police HQ, where she made a phone call ... to Nina Petracca, 23, who came to collect her.

Except the patrolman Petracca spoke to thought she seemed a little intoxicated, and after learning she had driven herself to the station, administered the same sobriety tests to her in the lobby, reports the Hunterdon County Democrat. She failed. And the story gets wackier, first, because Petracca was carrying seven Vicodin in an unlabeled container, so her DUI charge has now been married with a possession charge. Second, because she and Reategui decided to call Ryan Hogan, 33, to pick them up. And, yes, the patrolman smelled booze on him, and he failed his tests. The Democrat reports that someone sober ultimately picked all three of them up. They have January court dates.

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Woman Drives to Jail Drunk to Bail Out Drunk Husband

(Newser) – Lots of idiots drove drunk on New Year's Eve. But not many of them were driving to a police station to pick up a husband who had been arrested for, you guessed it, drunk driving. But that's what police allege a Pennsylvania woman did, according to the Erie Times-News. After police arrested 53-year-old Steven Flick (an arrest that involved him attempting to flee and being caught), Kimberly Flick called police around 2am on New Year's Day to arrange a pick-up. They warned her not to come if she, too had been drinking—but she allegedly ignored the warning. When she arrived, she, too was charged. (Amazingly, their story is a little less wild than this chain-of-DUIs story.)

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Wanted Man Posts Mugshot, Gets Captured Immediately

(Newser) – Note to those wanted by police: If your goal is not to get caught, it's probably not a good idea to "share" your mugshot on Facebook after the police department posts it. That's what Anthony James Lescowitch did Monday, police say; not surprisingly, the move led to the Pennsylvania man's arrest. The Freeland Police Department initially posted Lescowitch's mugshot asking anyone with knowledge of his whereabouts to alert authorities. Lescowitch then shared the mugshot and mocked police on his Facebook page ... and was arrested 45 minutes later.

Lescowitch was wanted on multiple charges, including aggravated assault, that date back to the summer, but he's been evading authorities since charges were filed in November. After seeing his Facebook post (which he shared within three minutes of the original post, according to the Scranton Times-Tribune, and which included the commentary "lol i f­--n love it A----E," according to the Philadelphia Inquirer) an undercover officer posed as a "fictitious attractive woman," as the Times Leader puts it, who wanted to meet up with Lescowitch. After about 30 minutes, Lescowitch told "her" where he would be; cops arrived, and he was taken into custody. (Click for another tale of dumb criminals.)

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How Not to Rob a Pizza Delivery Guy

(Newser) – A tough-to-beat entry in the criminal genius files: Police in Tuscaloosa say a 20-year-old man robbed a pizza delivery driver after phoning in the order from his own address, reports AL.com. The driver says he showed up at the home, knocked, and got immediately surrounded by armed men who stole his money and pizzas. Police canvassed the neighborhood armed with descriptions, and people kept pointing them back to the original house. Inside they found 20-year-old Michael Antonio Long, the stolen pizzas, and even the bag they came in. More arrests are expected to follow.

“We don't typically see a suspect call a delivery driver to their actual address to commit a robbery,” an officer tells the Tuscaloosa Times.

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