Least competent criminals
• The 44-year-old man who allegedly skipped out on a court appearance in April in Vernon, British Columbia, in connection with marijuana growing was arrested in December in Mission, British Columbia, when he applied for a job at the county jail.

Police in Oakland, Calif., charged Jason Brooks, 24, who had just recently applied to be an Oakland police officer, with a string of 18 armed robberies dating back to May. (Brooks told the arresting officers that, still, he'd like to join the force.) • Michael Millhouse was arrested in Clarkston, Wash., in December and charged with stealing a woman's wallet at a convenience store - a crime that was captured on surveillance video, one image from which was subsequently published on the front page of the Lewiston (Idaho) Tribune. Also on Page One that day was a news photo of a man painting Christmas messages in a local store window. A Tribune editor noticed that the two men bore a resemblance and called the police, who agreed, and arrested the painter, Millhouse.