ANOTHER EPISODE OF HARTFORD'S DUMBEST CRIMINALS

I guess for some people it is true that crime doesn't pay. Actually eventually it doesn't pay for most people, but some are a lot less skilled in the trade.

One example is one of our local residents who committed a robbery on Friday. I guess he was unaware that during the robbery he somehow dropped his wallet at the scene. It didn't take too much effort for HPD to quickly identify a suspect when they took the wallet into evidence, complete with photo ID of the alleged robber.

The officer's prepared a photo array which included the suspect and several other similar pictures. The victim apparently picked the suspect out of the array without any trouble. The officer prepared an arrest warrant application for the suspect and that was submitted to GA14, Hartford Superior Court.

If losing his wallet at a robbery scene wasn't bad enough, it gets worse for this genius.

Apparently to continue his crime spree, the suspect decided to steal a ladder from an apartment building on Broad Street near Russ Street Saturday morning. He got away unnoticed with the ladder, but then once again he made a critical mistake.

The suspect was attempting to sell the ladder for some quick cash on Broad Street Saturday morning. In a City with over 120,000 residents, this genius happened to approach the one wrong person. As he approached another individual to sell the ladder for cash, the person he approached suddenly recognized the ladder as his own property.

This crook needs to try a new line of work since crime is definitely not his strong point. The owner of the ladder called HPD and officers responded promptly and the suspect was located and the ladder was recovered.

Another stroke of bad luck though, one of the responding officers was also involved with the investigation of the previous days robbery. The officer recognized the suspect in the ladder theft as the person who was identified as the robbery suspect from the previous day.

Moses Castro was arrested and charged with the ladder theft and unless he makes bail will most likely be presented in Court on Monday, putting an end to his crime spree, at least for the time being.

Another good job by HPD, but some times it just seems too easy.