AL-AHSA: Robberies are serious crimes that often attract public attention, but in some cases, the actions of ill-prepared thieves make for entertaining and comical stories.

A robbery in Saihat for example, involved a woman who found a thief in her bedroom an hour after her husband had left for work. The thief, before stealing anything from the house, first threw an abaya at the woman, demanding that she cover herself, before he proceeded to do his job and leave.

In another equally bizarre incident in Qatif, a group of thieves entered a house after its owners left but were disappointed to find nothing of value. To get back at the family for leaving nothing valuable, they instead consumed a box of bananas and left the peelings scattered in different rooms.

A Bengali thief was also ill-prepared. After entering a farm house in Al-Ahsa at the opening for a ventilation fan, the thief got stuck as he was trying to leave. He remained there for several hours until he was discovered fast asleep by the farm owner.

“We were surprised to find the thief stuck in a very small opening, and were wondering why he tried to leave from there and what he wanted to steal. Why didn’t he just leave through the door?” asked Ali Hamza. “The situation made us laugh hysterically. What was he looking for? We have nothing but palm trees!”

Another robbery story involving a blind woman in Qatif is just as strange and comical. A robber entered the woman’s home after her husband had left but the woman, thinking the thief was her husband, began to ask many questions about why he had returned so quickly and why he wouldn't answer her.

Unsure of how to respond, the thief was forced to sit beside her to quiet her down and avoid attracting the attention of her neighbors. The woman then proceeded to touch his head as he was quiet. At that point, the woman realized the intruder had hair, unlike her husband who was bald. She screamed for help and the thief was subsequently arrested.

Another gang of thieves devised a plan to rob an electronics store in their village. They waited for the right time for carry out their plan which involved closing the road leading to the store and putting up a sign saying “Sorry for the Inconvenience of this Temporary Detour."

The robbery was carried out and as per the plan, the items were distributed among members of the gang. One member of the gang then sold a VCR to a resident in the village, but the customer, upon discovering the VCR required a remote control, contacted the shop clerk who alerted the store owner. The police were alerted and all members of the gang were then arrested, all because of the stupidity of one of its members.