We knew car thieves were low, but this is a new low.
Deputies in Luther, Oklahoma say they caught two mean stealing cars from a dead man’s house. But it was the method one of them used to transport one of those stolen vehicles that gave him away and we’re pretty sure would earn him a Dumbest Criminal of the Month award.
Watch the police run down an intoxicated repeat bail bond jumper.
According to a Fox 25 report, deputies caught up to Brandon Bliss as he was pulling one of the stolen cars using a tractor. Of course, they wanted to know what he was doing and if the vehicle he was towing was in fact his, which it reportedly wasn’t.
Deputies stopped the other alleged thief, Christopher Hands, just a few blocks down the road from where they caught up with Bliss. They say the man was towing a stolen vehicle behind a U-Haul pickup truck.
The car theft victim reportedly died back in 2021. We’re not sure why the house has sat unoccupied and the yard has been completely unmaintained since, but in images caught by Fox 25 you can barely see the actual structure for all the overgrowth.
The sheriff’s department had a good tip about keeping your property safe: keep your yard in good order. If plants are overgrown and everything has in general an unkept look about it, criminals will start wondering why. They love targeting unoccupied or infrequently occupied properties for theft, so it’s best to make a place look well cared-for if you want to avoid trouble.
Sheriff Tommie Johnson III said even if you have a relative who’s in a long-term care facility, you need to visit their property often to make sure everything is okay. That’s some solid advice. He also credited neighbors with noticing something was wrong and calling to report a possible crime.
Call it the broken window theory of policing: criminals figure if people don’t care about the appearance of a place, they’ll also be less likely to notice criminal activity and report it. So while we counsel people to get security cameras, an alarm, reinforce doors, use good locks, etc. we will also say keeping your trees trimmed, lawn mowed, and your house looking nice can help deter criminals from prowling around.
