This year's best 'dumb criminal' tales so far

'Banana Man' to the rescue!
A thief was captured by a cop dressed as a giant banana. A part-time police volunteer named Luke Summerhayes was doing his day job, working at a supermarket in the UK. As part of his promotional duties, he was dressed as a giant banana.

Suddenly the shoplifting alarm went off! Luke did not have time to take off his costume. He just raced after the thief as he was, flying across the shop in his two-metre-tall banana rig. The villain was proceeding at a steady pace across the car park when a giant banana raced out of nowhere and arrested him. Luke told reporters afterwards: "He looked pretty surprised."

Sorry, this window is closed, rob another one!
A would-be robber walked into a US bank and demanded cash. The teller said: "Sorry, this window is closed." The robber apologetically moved away to a teller window which was actively serving customers. The second teller pointed out that there was a queue, telling him he had to "wait in line" to rob the bank. In the queue, a customer scolded the man for not lowering the hood of his hoodie indoors. Feeling disrespected, the harassed villain gave up and left the bank in the US city of Boston, a local newspaper reported.

We're busy, rob someone else!
A man storming into a bank in Hong Kong's Kowloon district to announce he was robbing it. In a typical Hong Kong reaction, staff explained that they were far too busy to be robbed and ignored him. When police arrived, he complained to them about the poor service.

Masked robbers! Where?
In Holland earlier this year, a masked man entered a bar and leveled a gun at people inside. Too busy drinking and chatting, they ignored him. The whole thing is on YouTube, including the deflated robber's sad exit.