Idiot Criminal Of The Day: Did A Man Burglarize His Own Restaurant?

The Idiot Criminal Of The Day is a man accused of burglarizing his own restaurant! That will certainly earn you the title.

When you review video footage of your restaurant being burglarized, you really hope the person you see on video isn't you. That wouldn't be great. Burglaries and robberies happen all the time at restaurants, but very rarely is it the General Manager of said restaurant accused of doing the burglary. That's the kind of stuff that will earn you the title of Idiot Criminal Of The Day. It all happened in Bradenton, Florida.

According to FOX 13 News, an employee at Oak & Stone in Bradenton showed up to work and found the restaurant's entrance was unlocked. Reports say the safe was open and empty and the cash register at the bar appeared to have been forced open as well. FOX 13 News reports that the employee told the General Manager, 43-year-old William Johnson, who said he'd locked the restaurant at 12:45am.

FOX 13 News says video from Oak & Stone showed a man with his face covered walking into the manager's office and unplugging the security cameras early in the morning but he seemed to forget about the city's cameras which were not unplugged.

Bradenton Police Department Public Information Officer Meredith Censullo tells FOX 13 News, "Because we have such a great network of cameras that belong to the city or belong to local businesses, we were actually able to trace the steps of the person who entered the restaurant. It turns out that the suspect had parked several blocks away."

The suspect was seen parking a Kia that was registered to Johnson, who police say then walked to the restaurant and opened the door with a key, per FOX 13 News. Censullo tells FOX 13 News, "Later, when we tried to make contact with him so that we could go ahead and place him under arrest, because we had probable cause at that point, he did not have any interest in speaking with us." Reports say he stole roughly $3,500 from the restaurant's safe which they are still working to recover.

How crazy is that? You can't outsmart technology! Bold to think you could get away with burglarizing your own restaurant, if that's truly the case as alleged. You can see his mugshot provided by the Bradenton Police Department below.