[These are real acts of stupidity by people, courtesy of netscape.com]

A man in California was driving in the carpool lane when he was pulled over for driving alone. The man argued that he was not alone, he had three frozen cadavers in the back of his van, and they should be counted as passengers. The
police officer did not agree, and wrote the man a ticket.

In Texas there is a company called "Guns for Hire" that stages gunfights for westerns and such things. One day they received a call from a woman who mistakenly thought that she could hire them to kill her husband. Needless to say, she received a hefty jail sentence.

A robber entered a convenience store in Oklahoma and demanded all the money in the cash register. However, when he decided there wasn't enough money, he tied up the clerk and began to man the cash register himself. He was still there three hours later when police came to arrest him.

A parachuting instructor was excited because his wife had just bought him a camera to wear while jumping so that he could tape the experience. On the way up to jump, he was so excited that he put new film in, checked the battery, and made sure the camera was secure on his helmet. He had an amazing jump - but he forgot to put on his parachute.

Police in a small Kentucky town spent hours attempting to talk a gunman out of a standoff situation. After seven hours the police became impatient and shot tear gas into the house.
They realized that the gunman was standing beside them only when he began to yell toward the home, "Please just give yourself up and come out with your hands up."

A man entered a fast-food restaurant and explained that he
was robbing them. He pulled out a gun and put a bag over his
head as a mask. Only then did he realize he had forgotten to
cut eyeholes in the makeshift mask. He fell to the ground, where employees made a citizens' arrest.