Criminals aren’t very bright.

We’ve seen quite a few dumb criminals recently, but a group who stole a Portland woman’s Kia and left behind what authorities believe are photos of themselves just really takes the cake. After all, that’s almost as good as putting a signed confession with your fingerprints on the dashboard when you dump a stolen car.

Watch a cop pretend to be a K9 to get some car thieves to surrender.

This unbelievable story comes via KGW News, which spoke with the woman who says she bought the Kia Rio about two years ago. However, one morning she woke up and the car was gone. It was discovered later in the parking lot of a shopping center in a different part of Portland with the Polaroids of likely the thieves as well as a partial 12-pack of White Claw, the drink preferred by Elon Musk, no less.

Those Polaroid photos came from a camera the woman left in her Kia. Not many people have those these days, so it’s likely the young thieves found the novelty fascinating and just had to use it. The problem is they left some nice evidence behind in the process.

Sadly, the thieves also got away with over $2,000 in camera equipment that was left in the trunk of the Kia. Not to blame this woman, but we want to remind everyone to not leave valuables in your car, especially overnight. It’s just not worth the risk.

We don’t expect Portland police will be hot on the trail of these car thieves. After all, car theft is quite common in the city and local law enforcement have their hands full with many more serious crimes. Sadly, that’s in part why car theft is such a common problem in places like Portland.

It’s also noteworthy that the steering column shrouding had been removed from the Kia Rio, as shown by KGW. In other words, these kids likely did the famous TikTok challenge where they hotwired the car using a USB phone charging cable. There are multiple layers of ridiculousness in this story, but that’s the state of car theft in the US and many other countries in 2023.