The Criminal Mind

Recently, three men in their early twenties were in the drive in lane at a fast food restaurant. They were viewing a pornographic movie on the car's DVD player. Behind them in another car was a mother, her eight year old daughter and the mother's 90 year old mother. They all were exposed to the DVD movie and called the police. The police came and arrested the young men for a violation of a law regarding public indecency.

As it turned out, one of the passengers in the car had three open warrants for his arrest. One of the other passengers was discovered with a funny cigarette in his shirt pocket, so was also charged with another law violation. One has to question the intelligence of these three young men. Certainly, intelligence is not a requirement to break the law.

Years ago, I sat on a grand jury for three weeks. The only place that was open late at night in a certain high crime area was a well-known restaurant chain. Over and over, the police caught criminals in the restaurant parking lot, because it was a gathering place to buy drugs or buy and sell stolen property. The police knew this, but the local bad boys evidently did not.

While I served on the grand jury, the director of security from a local bank came in to testify regarding the theft of money from a woman's credit card. One hundred dollars was withdrawn from her credit card account on three separate occasions. The thief turned out to be the woman's roommate, who did not realize that her picture was being taken every time she withdrew money from the account. She swore unsuccessfully that the three pictures were not of her, but of someone who looked just like her. Intelligence is not a prerequisite to a life of crime. That's why it is so easy sometimes to catch criminals.