Animal Shelter Captures Bumbling "Gumball Bandit" On Video

A man who broke into an animal shelter in Northern California wasn't looking to steal money or pain medication - he was only after the gumballs. 

The man (who has been dubbed the "Gumball Bandit" was spotted wrestling with the gumball machine on the Front Street Animal Shelter's surveillance footage, which they shared on their Facebook page last week. 

"The Gumball Bandit faced many trials and tribulations when he broke into our shelter and stole our fund-raising gumball machine," the shelter wrote. "But don't feel too sorry for this candy crook, he did just steal from a shelter after all."

The bumbling bandit managed to initially gain access to the shelter by squeezing through a doggie door - the same place he tried to exit with the machine at first, but only managed to spill gumballs everywhere, later slipping on them in an inspired bit of vaudevillian lunacy. 

The video which was tagged with the hashtag "#SacrementosDumbestCriminals" quickly went viral, with people sharing the video on Facebook more than 12,000 times. 


At one point, the machine's quarter compartment spills out about a dollar's worth of quarters, something the subtitles make fun of. 

"What a baller. (A gum baller)," subtitles on the video read. 

Giving up on the gumballs, the man attempts to open up the machine's quarter compartment, which seems like a silly waste of effort when the shelter points out the cash donation box is only a few feet away from the master criminal.

Finally, the bandit decides to leave the shelter with his booty through another door he had apparently discovered. 

"Suspect has a stroke of genius, realizing buildings sometimes have more than one door," another subtitle reads. Eventually, the bandit managed to get the machine out through the door, and tossed it over a barbed wire fence. 

The incident happened just after 5 a.m. on March 7th, according to a detective with the Sacramento Police Department. Police are asking anyone who might recognize the "Gumball Bandit" to contact Sacramento Police, because they'd sure like to speak with them about the theft. 


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