The World's Dumbest Criminals: Based on True Stories from Law Enforcement Officials Around the World

by Daniel R. Butler, Alan Ray

Draws on actual news clippings from around the world to present a moron's gallery of would-be rogues, bumbling burglars, and foolish felons

Genres: Humor, Comedy, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published September 30, 1999

Reviews

[Amity☺Currently-Awesome☺ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very cool. The first chapter is about the criminals and the rest is about silly things that people did or saw.

[Chance Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can see the passion in this book. Like the show it's based on I thought it was pretty good.

Cover
I'm not too fond of this cover. I think it should be more cleaver than fifteen pictures of the same guy in different hats. I understand the symbolism about "No matter where, criminals are all the same." but I think it could have stepped up it's game.
I like the detail that every location is set on the cover. Even if some only appear once. (Since this is a Jr. Edition go cartoony. You did for the interior illustration. I would have used a over the top looking thief.)

Interior
Story
There is a total of 76 very sort and doesn't spend any time adding filler.
Each story is given a title, Some of them are pretty clever and playful. I did find some of the incredibly funny while shaking my head over the devastation of other cases. I didn't expect so many bank heists in this book.
Every once in a while the story is broken up with details or facts which I did find quite interesting.

Illustrations
This book didn't need to add illustrated pictures. But it's nice that they did. They look great and add a touch more personality.

[Jacquie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, some people are just plain dumb!! This was a great and interesting read.

[Sylvia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book!! They were so Dumb criminals!!

[Matthew Harwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is truly amazing what some people think that they can get away with. This book is a bizarre collection of human stupidity at its finest.

[Beth Helm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny

I loved this book. It was full of stories about dumb criminals from around the world. I laughed at their stupidity.

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would it be too much to ask for a book like this that isn't as stupid as the criminals it features? I understand this is meant to be humorous - that's why I wanted to read it after all. But the humor here isn't real humor - it's Funniest Home Videos/Bob Saget humor. So, basically, none. It's not funny.
These dumb criminals are features on one to two page spreads which consist of, at most, a few paragraphs. Nothing wrong there. Just what you would expect right? Sure.
Then, for whatever reason, the author felt it was necessary to add in a "clever" one-liner at the end of each story. The problem? The sentences aren't clever. Nor are they humorous. They're stupid. And that ruins the entire book.
One story - ONE STORY made me chuckle out loud. I forget what number or the name of it but it was about an elderly drunk man "driving". He was stuck in a snow drift with a wall of snow in front of his windsheild. He not only had his windsheid wipers going but he was staring intently out of the window, the whole while pressing on the gas and spinning his tired. The officer who came up on this decided to stay next to the backseat window and he started running in place. Then he "sped up" and came up to the drivers side, still running in place. The driver did a double take and tried to sped up but, of course, went nowhere.
This I liked. This says something about the officer, that he would even think of something like this, that he actually did it. I laughed at that one and may even repeat the story sometime.
The rest? Okay but nothing really great. One story didn't even belong and I'm still wondering about it.
Apparently in a little village in Peru there is a one man police team. This man finally got a radio and it was stolen after three days. Uh, here are the clever sentences: "Now Suarez had a very good reason to get another radio - so he could call the guy who had stolen his first radio. That's one criminal Suarez hopes would be dumb enough to keep in touch." Um yeah. How does that fit in this book exactly? Did they need one more story to make quota and were fresh out?
One more that didn't fit IMO but that I suppose could be argued by some. In 1947 George Musgrave suggested that the Motor Vehicle Dept. use yellow lines on roadways as part of a safety competition. Years later he was ticketed for parking on a yellow line. Not exactly "dumb criminal" stuff is it?
I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. I haven't found a book of this nature yet to be any different also. I actually did get a laugh out of this in a way - I went to the authors page and saw that some of his books are works with Leland Gregory. Gregory has a few books of this kind which are just as bad if not worse. I don't get it - it doesn't seem to be a hard thing to accomplish.
If anyone knows of anything featuring idiot criminals that isn't a chore to read feel free to comment.

[Daniel Padulo · Rating 2 out of 5]

At first I thought this book was funny and cool. Yet, as I read on, the stories just kept coming. It got boring after the first 100 pages. The stories are all the same and you could always predict what is going ot happen. There is a criminal who tries to rob or steal, but there is always a flaw in their plan which causes them to fail. Like the story where there was these two men and they tried to dig underground to get under a bank, but instead they accadentally hit a water pipe and got busted. i already knew what was going to happen. I knew they were going to get caught somehow. Maybe if the author made a few twists in the story, it could be alittle less repetitive and dull. there are so many of them i just didn't care anymore. It wasn't the best book but it wasn't the worst book. i mean the first 100 pages were entertaining and funny with all the dumb criminals not being so clever and getting caught. Like my favorite story when this man was an expert stealer but one day he stole from a store and ran to a police station to hide. Yet, didn't the author at all consider how many stories there were or how repetitive it was going to be? Im pretty sure anyone would get bored reading too much of this. that is why i gave this book 2 stars.

[Franlys · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a very funny book. It is about criminals that really try to do crimes but, they really do the crimes in dumb ways. For example there was this guy who was a really fast runner he could break a window and take everything in 5 seconds this thief was a good thief but indeed very dumb. The thief saw these shoes he wanted for his girlfriend and he planned to steal them. Then he later stole all the shoes and he was running in the next 5 seconds. He had escaped a succesfull run and now he was going to check his merchandise. He then checked the shoes he had stolen and he then saw that he had only taken all the right pair of shoes there was no left shoe. This book provides more funny stories about criminals that really don't think about the crime their making or really make a big mistake and things go wrong. I would remond people that like funny stories to read this book it is really funny.

[Jaelynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy comedy and slapstick, you will love the book The World’s Dumbest Criminals by Daniel Butler and Alan Ray. The book tells 76 stories of dumb criminals that happen all over the world. One story is about one criminal who went to a mall and decided to steal some things. As he did, he was caught and chased down by security guards. When he went to his car, he sat down and started crying. Security came up to him then and asked him why was he crying and he locked himself out of his car. Another story is about a criminal who broke the glass window of a store and took some really expensive shoes and ran off into the alley. When he went to the alley looking at the shoes, he notice there wasn't any left shoes, then the cops tapped him on the shoulder. This book would really make you laugh at some criminals who commit dumb crimes. One of the best things about this book is its humor. If you like comedy movies, tv shows, books, etc… you might really like this book.

[Ada Gao · Rating 3 out of 5]

The world's dumbest criminals was about many criminals that in many ways steal in different dumb ways. Some stories are dumber then others but they were all funny. There was not only one story on one dumb criminal, and it involved many different places. Of course different stories have different people in there. They said it was based on true story but they changed the name of the criminals.

i would recommend this to the people that wants to read a book for the fun and entertainment because this book was kind of funny to me. Also each story was pretty short so you can finish this book pretty quickly. To the people that actually wants to read a full story, then they should not choose this book because this really is not much of a story.

[Faustas · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a teenage boy who likes comedy books then The World’s Dumbest Criminals by Daniel Butler & Alan Ray is meant for you. In this book it talks about funny criminals who fail in life. The story takes place in a variety of places like Hong Kong, Peru and Italy. The book is hilarious. For example, a robber stole a purse and ran into a building, and accidentally jumped into a parade. While reading this book I was giggling a lot. The things I like in that is non-fiction and it a comedy book. The thing I didn’t like that the authors didn’t include the real names. This made me really mad because I couldn’t look up a picture of them. If you like T.V. shows like America's Got Talent, this a good book for you.

[Rudy Gutierrez · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only thing in this book that gave me comfort was that they were from all over the world. It's good to know that there are stupid people anywhere you go. there are some who you want to think, "They've got to have made this us" but no someone actually thought it was a good idea and that they would actually get away with it. By the time you are 1/2 way through the book you are feeling pretty good about yourself and start thinking you are much smarter then these criminals. By the time you are getting near the end you are imagining how you would have pulled off some of the capers and then you realize you have the potential to be in Volume 2. Enjoyable read but will not add any value to your existence.

[Keion · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book of them all because it is really funny . Some people commit the slliest crimes without planning their process . This book shows you how dumb a human can be , for example this man had tried to rob the bank and when it was time to leave he left his keys in the car ! The dumb mistakes that the people make makes the book very interesting

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is pretty funny and interesting. It is amazing how ignorant criminals can be, hahaha! I read it with my son, and he loved it!

[Kjgreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just okay. Like other reviews say, the criminals themselves are funny but the writing is kind of blah. This is true crime for the gereatric crowd, IMHO.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny but repetitive, the lack of depth actually works against the stories.

[MsJohnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book for struggling readers. The individual stores are short, but the length of the collection works to build stamina.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

downright hilarious and entertaining

[All-star2123 · Rating 5 out of 5]

i think this book was good.

[Grayson Pysczynski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently read Worlds Dumest Criminals. This non-fiction book is about some of the worlds dumbest criminals. Some of these stories are really funny because people are just plain stupid. One of my favorite stories about how a criminals alibi was that he was somewhere else robbing a different place.

This book is great for a short read and if you just want to have laugh. The book is funny and interesting because you would read some stories that you would never read anywhere else.

I recommend this book for 5th grade and up because there are some hard words in it and drinking references, but it's great for anyone.

[Jayden Chamberlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very good because it was a short book but had very entertaining stories in it. The book is about the crimes that criminals have done that went wrong. The book could have had some longer stories but besides that, it was a great book. I would recommend this book to anyone who does not want to read a long book but want to be entertained.