Criminals Are Suckers, Too

By Prescott Carlson in News on Dec 22, 2008 8:54PM

Apparently there are some fugitives in Cook County that aren't fans of John Stossel -- if they were, they might have been more skeptical responding to a "mystery shopper" scam. But unlike most other promises of easy money, this time the scam was run by the good guys.

The Cook County Sheriff's office sent out letters to approximately 6,300 people with outstanding warrants, pretending to be from the made-up company "Shoptastic Solutions". The letters stated that the recipient had the opportunity to collect $500 if they would show up at a suburban hotel and answer survey questions to "help retail stores figure out shoppers' needs during the holiday season." Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart told the Trib, "We tried to tap into people's Christmas spirit, then threw a big Grinch on top of it."

61 people fell for the ruse, and were promptly arrested. 169 other arrests were made related to the sting (presumably some were no-goodnik friends that had tagged along), bringing the total to 230. Not a bad return for $2,600 worth of stamps. Justin Taylor of Elgin clearly wins our award for dumbest criminal of the day:

[Taylor] had an outstanding warrant for driving on a revoked or suspended license, officials said. Dart said he drove to the hotel and had 2.5 grams of marijuana with him, which he allegedly told police he had planned to smoke in celebration of collecting the $500.

Photo via Cook County Sheriff website