It's Where They'd Least Expect It

There are a few really dumb places to commit crimes. A police station would be a good start, as would a convent (then the prosecution witnesses would be the proverbial busload of nuns). A courthouse isn't much better. But that's what one woman did in the northern part of the state. After paying a fine for a speeding charge in the Upshur County Courthouse, she very casually picked up an eight-foot carpet on her way out. She would have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for those meddling surveillance cameras:

Deputies immediately scanned video surveillance of the hallway in the
communication center. They produced a picture of a woman with her hair pulled
back and showed it to all of the employees in the building.

'To do it in a public building, especially now with today's technology,' [Deputy] Miller said. 'About everybody has a security camera in their courthouse.'

When they described the woman's appearance to Beth Miller, a magistrate court deputy clerk, she immediately remembered processing her citation.

The would-be carpet thief was tracked down and charged with petit larcency.