Idiot du jour - would-be thief locks self in car trunk

[widebody911]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=12&u=/ap/20050426/ap_on_fe_st/clumsy_burglar%22

FRESNO, Calif. - A man attempting to burglarize a car over the weekend locked himself in the trunk and was swiftly arrested, police said.



A security guard at an apartment complex in southeast Fresno followed a trail of blood to a banging noise coming from the trunk in the early morning hours Sunday.

Authorities responding to the scene expected to find a victim, but instead discovered the burglar.

"Genius, pure genius," said Fresno County Sheriff's Lt. Louis Hernandez.

Police said he cut himself on the door of another car he'd broken into, then trickled blood across the parking lot to the car he eventually locked himself inside.

The man initially told authorities he had been hit on the head and stuffed in the trunk, but police found items stolen from another vehicle inside the trunk with the suspect.

"He popped the trunk from the inside and crawled back there, ransacking every inch," Hernandez said. "But then he grabs the trunk to heave himself out and closes it on top of him. He's got to be the dumbest criminal of the day."

The man was taken to University Medical Center to be treated for cuts, then to the Fresno County Jail to be booked on two counts of theft.

Police did not identify the suspect.