30 of the Biggest Crimes People Have Gotten Away With
‘I don’t know what it’s called… like industrial espionage?’
![30 of the Biggest Crimes People Have Gotten Away With](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/7/1119897_320x180.jpg)
After reading these stories, you may be tempted to pull off an Ocean’s 11-style heist of your own. It’s hard not to get sticky fingers when reading a Redditor’s story about stealing $30,000 worth of watches in a week’s time. It’s even harder to not be jealous of a different Redditor who created a fake investment profile and pilfered $80,000 over a six-month time frame.
But I do have to advise against it. The following criminal masterminds are incredibly lucky to have gotten away with these docuseries-worthy offenses. So it’s best if you just marvel at their genius instead, which is exactly what you’ll do when you read about the Redditor who made $400,000 stealing and selling credit card numbers.
![DownAndDead 11y ago Caused over €5,000 in criminal damage when I was younger and not so long ago my spray paint art was plastered all over the local papers for painting pieces on government buildings. That's about it. Share 5 ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/6/1119866.jpg)
![11y ago I accidentally burned down an apartment complex. I was young with some candles and fire. I had bad memory. But I did know how to lie. 5 Share ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/5/1119865.jpg)
![Endoman13 11y ago I use the fact that I'm a well dressed white male to steal groceries. I load a basket and confidently walk out. I have like 15 baskets at home. I don't do that anymore.......I miss free groceries. 7 Share ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/4/1119864.jpg)
![throwawayforyourmom 11y ago I created a fake investment profile and stole over $80,000 worth of illegitimate investments in the frame of 6 months. Evaded a cartel hitman and moved to a different country for 8 years. This was in the 80's. 9 Share ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/3/1119863.jpg)
![mlmcw 4y ago When he was a teenager, my dad robbed a mother's cookies truck. Cookies for months. Share 1.2K ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/2/1119862.jpg)
![Tundur 4y ago One of my great-uncles was highly involved in sanction busting for the apartheid state of Rhodesia. Не worked for the Netherlands Bank of Rhodesia and was forced to stay and work through threats to his family by the minority government. Luckily he managed to convince the government that his kids simply must have a British public-school education, and that his wife would escort them to London for the start of term. Whilst they were abroad they were taken into protective custody by the British government, and he managed to slip over one of the land borders to](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/1/1119861.jpg)
![LunaticPity 4y ago Myself and a friend once stole the statue of Colonel Sanders from a Japanese KFC. We were both in the military at the time and we took it to our unit and placed it behind the desk of our battalion commander, who was Colonel Sanders. We also broke into his quarters at the BOQ and stole a uniform to put on it. Our drunken version of an April 1 prank. Не was a pretty chill guy and thought it was extremely funny.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/0/1119860.jpg)
![4y ago I don't know what it's called, like industrial espionage? Basically, 20 years ago, my dad enlisted talented-computer-kid me to create a fake pricing invoice from a rival company to make it appear to the potential customer that they were much more expensive than Dad's company's offer, even though the competitor was way cheaper, though much lower quality. I think the whole thing was around $380k. 320 Share ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/9/1119859.jpg)
![donny_pots 11y ago 00 I guess I'll take this opportunity to apologize to the kid I punched in the face at Rutgers, splitting his cheek open, and then trying to stab his friend with a broken Bacardi bottle 17 Share ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/8/1119858.jpg)
![4y ago My great uncle used to follow civil rights protests around to sell them weed. Не also was tripping balls at the I had a dream speech 828 Share ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/7/1119857.jpg)
![littleoctagon 4y ago My grandfather was often drunk but when he wasn't drunk he would pretend to be drunk so that the Soviet Communist party members responsible for interrogating all those who might be opposed to communism thought and said, Eh, he's a drunk, we'll question him last. This gave him time to gather resources so he could escape (with my dad). So, although public inebriation probably almost certainly wasn't a crime in most Eastern European countries at the time (late 40's), he would have been gulag-bound if he'd been caught in this charade. Share 5.3K ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/6/1119856.jpg)
![theyeticometh 0 10y ago I've smoked pot and masturbated in the bathroom in the US capital building. 24 ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/5/1119855.jpg)
![4y ago Edited 4y ago My great uncle stole a train station. Like an actual train station. Edit, bonus crime: Не broke into a local police station to steal his own (paper) criminal record. Didn't destroy or steal any of the others. Just his own. 10K Share ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/4/1119854.jpg)
![robtk12 4y ago My dad told me he once snuck into a tire warehouse, he cut the alarm and came in through a window on the roof, and stole a bunch of tires. 19K Share ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/3/1119853.jpg)
![pow3llmorgan 4y ago Arson. Me and my friend were playing stupid games with fireworks and it resulted in some poor guy's fishing shed getting burned to the ground. I cringefully regret it and the only solace I take is that no one got physically hurt. I learned that the guy's insurance covered the building and everything in it but I have never forgiven myself for making that guy cry over his stuff, and for making the firefighters get called out for stupid shit on New Year's. 67 ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/9/1119849.jpg)
![sfr69 10y ago I once stole the watch display case (well it's contents) from a department store after I figured out how to open them. Repeated it at the same location next day, and at other locations over the coming days. About $30k+ of watches. 278 ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/6/1119846.jpg)
![whorunit 10y ago Printing money ... Me and about 10 of my friend spent about $8,500 in counterfeit 5 and 10 dollar bills over a three month period in high school. 48 ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/8/1119848.jpg)
![chocolate_factory 10y ago Broke into a little convenience store when I lived out in the boonies. My brother picked the lock and we ran in, took a bunch of beers and soda and candy and a little stack of 20s under the counter by the register. My bus stop was right in front of said store. Next day while waiting the lady came in saying oh shit I forgot to lock up last night! 28 ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/2/1119852.jpg)
![4y ago I worked at a movie theatre when Back To The Future was originally released. We used to take the entire movie ticket instead of tearing them and re-sell them to the next group coming in. The old theatre was massive. Sat 600 people. We probably made about $15k between two of us in month or so. Adjusted for inflation, it's about $37k. We were the richest high school kids in our town. 15K Share ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/0/1119850.jpg)
![_cheater_throwaway 11y ago Throw away... I played college football at a smaller D1 school in the Northeast. Because I was a better student than most of the other players on my team I was employed by the Athletic Department in student athlete study hall as a tutor. That was my cover. Athletes would pay me as much as 20$ a page in for papers that would write for them while we sat in study hall. I was paid by the school and the athletes at the same time. Most of the athletes knew about my little operation so had a](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/4/1119844.jpg)
![the_throwanator 13y ago I grew and sold psychedelic mushrooms. I started growing them because i couldnt find anyone to buy them off. It gave me an easy, steady supply for myself but it took almost no effort to produce commercial quantities. So i did. I'd only sell them to close friends, they might buy an ounce or so and on-sell them to friends, keeping me from dealing with anyone i didnt know. The process is incredibly simple and i managed to make a few grand using just a few buckets hidden in my room. It was such low maintenance that](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/7/1119847.jpg)
![dr_eviltron 11y ago You wanted to hear from actual criminal masterminds? Well congratu-fucking-lations, I used to be one. I used to steal large volumes of credit card numbers and sell them on a site called Carders Market (which later got busted, you can look up documentaries on it) My single biggest theft involved staking out the headquarters of a large retail company. I kept tabs on employees who would always leave work with a laptop. Finally followed a few of them home on different days. Then I left all of them coupons for free cleaning service trials that saturday. A](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/2/1119842.jpg)
![13y ago Credit card fraud. Not a throwaway either, not something I'm ashamed of. I'll explain. When I was a young lad, 12 or 13, for those in the know, credit card numbers were traded en masse through IRC networks (mainly DALnet). I would sit in the channel and see what was what. I only ever ordered one thing, to check what was going on was legit, which was a Rockport jumper for 50 quid. Gave it to my father for Christmas. After that, I decided to try and break up these credit card rings as much as possible.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/1/1119851.jpg)
![i_blackmail_pedo 11y ago Over the last 3 years, I've made about £30,000 blackmailing paedophiles who approach children in online chatrooms. Fucks given - 0](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/3/1119843.jpg)
![GlassEyeGreg 11y ago I once broke someone's jaw in a drunken fight. The sound that it made still haunts me till this day. I fled the scene, and have never faced any legal consequences. However I did see a grainy CCTV photo of myself in the paper the next week. I'm in no way proud of what I done, or getting away with it, but you can't change the past. 2.8K Share ...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/5/1119845.jpg)
![11y ago When I was 12 I walked into a large Target-like store with my brother, grabbed the nicest bike we could find, walked it up to customer service counter, and asked to return the bike my brother got for his birthday. They asked if we had a receipt to which we replied no. They apologized and said we needed to go home and get the receipt before we could return it. We asked if we were going to be able to leave the store with the bike if we didn't have a receipt, in response they called security](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/1/1119841.jpg)
![SkinnyWhiteHuell 11y ago When I was a kid, a couple friends and I stripped the local airport runway for the light covers. Long story short, we thought they were pretty cool, and posession of one of the two-color ones from the end of the runway was a status symbol in our neighborhood. Eventually they let us go with a stay out of trouble until you're 16 and it goes away deal. I learned later that we were one cover from a felony charge. The one more cover was missing, but not recovered, which explained their continued grilling over where we](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/7/1119837.jpg)
![ThrowawayOU8125150 11y ago This one is a little bigger than the stole packs of gum posts. Am I proud I got away with it? - a little, yeah. Would I have been FUCKED had I been caught? Uhhh...yeah. I was enrolled at a university and worked for them as well. A benefit of employment was they paid my tuition. Everything was great for about a year and a half - then BOOM - the area I worked in at the university was bought by an outside organization. Lucky for me, the school agreed to grandfather me in and continue to offer me free tuition, however the](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/9/1119839.jpg)
![10y ago . Edited 10y ago Took a weapon on an international flight. I went to Honduras with some friends in high school. We bought machetes and various knives because they were cheap and we thought we were cool. Thought we packed everything on our checked bags on the way back to the US, but when I got home I pulled a huge knife out of my carry-on. Easily a foot long blade. I have no idea how security missed it, but I don't think 'ooops' would have been an acceptable answer.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/0/1119840.jpg)
![11y ago I held up a delivery person and took their weekly collection money with a pal of mine back when we were 14/15 years old. We done it properly too and staked out the job for a couple of weeks until we had their routine studied. Person we robbed shat their pants when we hopped out of some overgrowth bushes and give us the money in an instant. Queue us two teenagers spending like millionaires for a couple weeks and splashing the cash on video games, takeaways and taxi rides home. Crime did pay in this case I'm](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/8/1119838.jpg)