The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: March 28, 2010

Official News page 9


REAL LIFE NEWS: TV BRAG SENDS CROOKS TO JAIL

by Hazed

I thought we'd never find anything to top last week's story about the crook who was caught because he taunted police on Facebook, but I should have known there is no limit to human imbecility.

A couple from California appeared on a TV show and boasted about how they made a fortune flogging shoplifted toys on eBay. Matthew and Laura Eaton were already being watched by the police, under suspicion of shoplifting, but detectives had no idea just how huge the scale of their thefts were, until they appeared on the show.

Just to be extra helpful to the police, their boasts explained how they did it: Mrs Eaton used the kids as a distraction, while Mr Eaton lifted hundreds of boxes of Lego toys. They netted $3,500 a week eBaying the loot.

Just in case there was any doubt that they might be making this up, the TV show actually aired a video of the couple's three small children accompanying them on a three-day shoplifting session.

Mind you, even with this cast iron video evidence, it took the police another year to bring them to book, but they were finally arrested last September and have just pled guilty to "conspiracy to transport stolen properly across state lines". Matthew will be locked up for 27 months, and his wife for a year. They can now ponder whether their 15 minutes of fame was worth it.

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