What is supposed to be a luxurious, tropical escape on the high seas can sometimes devolve into a floating barge of drunken tussles at the midnight pizza buffet. Choose your cruise wisely, or you could wind up bruised and battered and also starring in a Ridiculous Crime episode.

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Colonial America, and England in the time of the Puritans... not exactly the time or places you'd expect to find a footloose and fancy-free beggar hopping and skipping back and forth across the Atlantic. His secret? Begging, borrowing and stealing. Also, the kindness of others. A shipwreck? A flooded farm? A burned down farmhouse? These weren't calamaties to the King of the Beggars, no, quite the opposite, those were stages for him to debut a new character and then let charity find him. 

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It turns out we do read the emails. Unless Ex-intern Braxton accidentally deletes them all. Join us for cool listener stories, little shorty crimes, and gripping updates. *hits send*

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Crazy Eddie had a slew of stores selling cheap electronics, touted by infectious advertising. Like the universe itself, the Crazy Eddie empire expanded exponentially. Money flowed, celebrities orbited, good times rolled. But then, like a capitalist black hole, it all imploded. So long, Crazy Eddie. Godspeed, you crooked warrior.

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The Italian carmaker Ferrari is known worldwide for the the elegant look, the unique sound, and insane speed and eye-catching design of its sports cars. Some Ferraris are prized as much as works of art by renowned masters. Tom Baker was an American man, with a very curious hobby. Some people collect stamps, others trade collectibles. Tom Baker liked to steal Ferraris from luxury automobile dealerships. And he was surprisingly good at it –– until Det. Joe Hess was put on the trail of elusive Ferrari thief.

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Los Angeles, the bank robbery capital of the world. When bank robberies are commonplace, it takes an inventive heist team to stand out. That's exactly what the Hole in the Ground Gang did. They lifted their profile by lowering their operations. Right down into the sewers.

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Long before he was one of America's most beloved TV dads, TIm Allen was an inmate in federal prison. He was busted on major cocaine charges. Forget Jay Z, Tim Allen was pushing real weight in those days before he found fame. And he kinda paid a price for it; but it definitely made him the man and superstar he is today.

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Jan Lewan was a man with a dream. He wanted to bring Poland to America, whether it was through music, travel, or delightful merchandise. He also had a dream that selling unregistered securities was a solid road to riches. Turns out, it was a solid road to the clink. Who cares. Everybody polka!

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A world-famous physics professor fell in love with a world-famous bikini model. The professor obeyed the Laws of Newton, but not the laws of the land. His strange criminal escapade escaped the bounds of all logic when he was caught at an airport smuggling kilos of cocaine and he landed in an Argentinian prison. As the professor knew, every action has a reaction.

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Destroying the office of a children's charity. Dropping stolen jewelry. Falling out of the ceiling. Making weed candies. Starring in a hit reality tv show. On the islands of Long and Staten, things can get crazy. How crazy? Oh, just listen to the episode.

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When a woman looking for spiritual guidance met a Florida man calling himself Giovanni, she knew her life was about to change. What she didn't know was that she'd be convinced to steal the jewels of a sheikh, travel to Cannes for no reason, and be given a spell of invisibility. Not all change is good, folks.

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We love food, don't we folks? It's delicious, it nourishes us, it brings us together. Some of it is kind of expensive. And as we all know, where there's worth, there's crime. Join us on a culinary adventure across continents and food groups as we discover sticky situations, fishy deals, tough nuts to crack, and hot cheese.

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He was the most famous superfan of the Kansas City Chiefs. He never missed a game –- home or away. He was famous for his rubber wolf mask, weightlifter pants and unhinged passion. But come to find out the superfan known as KC Wolfman was funding his love of football with... crime!

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The Ridiculous crews, both History and Crime, rejoin forces to once again play everyone’s favorite guessing game: 20 Questions. There were questions. There were answers. There were jokes about dogs in sunglasses! Join the gang for some puzzling good fun!

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John Factor may have been the lesser-known Factor brother, but that didn't stop him from weaving his way through history. Haircuts, Chicago mobsters, London cons, whiskey scams, Vegas casinos, and even JFK. The tale of John Factor is a wild ride through the 20th century's criminal underbelly.

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Imagine a jazz-voiced, reefer-smoking, nightclub comic, a man who preached love long before the Hippies, a cat who was on that cosmic trip of beauty in the decade before the Beats, and imagine this man in a top hat and tuxedo with tails. Before him, there was no one like Lord Buckley. After him, you can find his influence everywhere.

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You want to make money. So you become a hypnotist. Along the way, you marry a starlet, hire a hitman, fight Johnny Carson, start a university, and teach people to make paper flowers. Ah, the life of a nightclub hypnotist.

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He had country music wanderlust and rock star ambition. He was a scion of wealth and privilege. Oh, and he was best friends with Keith Richards! Gram Parsons was someone who was here for a good time not a long time. When he passed, his friends and manager did as they'd promised him. They stole Gram Parsons body and drove out to Joshua Tree, where they gave him the rock n' roll funeral he desired. Including amateur cremation.

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Wise-cracking Wilson Mizner was a legend among legends when it came to cons. Witty, creative, tough, daring, wild, and forever in the right place at the right time. From the Alaskan Gold Rush to the South Florida land boom to the early days of Hollywood, Mizner was there.

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No one expects to hear stories of beard-loving, barn-raising, technology-avoiding Amish and Mennonites being involved in street crime. Let alone that they have secret pot-growing empires. And outlaw biker-supplied cocaine cowboys riding in black buggies. "Welcome to Amish Country, son! Watch your a$$!"

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The Dutch are famous for a lot of things: tulips, cheese, fine art, double jump rope. They are also pretty good at both stealing and having a paintings stolen, apparently. What happens when the same painting is stolen three times? Let's just say it's pretty ridiculous.

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Your wedding day is supposed to be one of the happiest days of your life –– but this cadre of criminal wedding parties, abducted grooms and runaway brides put that to the test. Meet the folks hosting fictitious weddings to get revenge on their exes, and the ones with cold feet who flee from police, as well as the disappearing brides and "gutless" grooms who decide married life may not be for them.

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Alcatraz. The Rock. Home to some of the most notorious criminals in modern American history. Murderers. Vicious thieves. Al Capone! And a guy who got put away for something truly heinous: shaking a woman’s hand. Oh, the humanity.

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In 2004, 23 Sri Lankan men traveled to Germany as the Sri Lankan National Handball Team to take part in an international tournament. But there was one catch, there was no Sri Lankan National Handball Team. And to make things weirder — all 23 men disappeared. A mystery was born in Germany that day.

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We lament the behavior of the youth of today, but what about the youngsters of yesteryear? Friends, they were just as bad. Between the Gold Rush and the Great Quake, kids in San Francisco stole purses, toys, and guns. Yes, guns. Kids those days…

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A tale as old as crime. Phony wealthy widow seeks dupe to front her cash until her non-existent inheritance comes through. The queen of the hill, top of the heap when it came to these cons? Bertha Heyman aka Big Bertha. Derided by newspapers, besmitten by suitors, no one ran a con like Big Bertha.

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He said “no” to Oprah, but he said “yes” to Ridiculous Crime. In a rare twist, Zaron surprises Elizabeth with his own mash-up — an interview with actual international jewel thief, Gerald Blanchard, the star of a new documentary. Meet the folk hero outlaw, the criminal mastermind who later earned the nickname the “James Bond of Crime.”

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A thief breaks into luxury homes in tony Boca del Mar. the cops are flummoxed by this brazen burglar. Even more so when they find out it’s a lady thief! How could the Bandit of Boca del Mar be a woman? That’s unthinkable! Hey, anything is possible in Palm Beach County, baby.

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In the great spirit of YouTube influencer extreme Logan Paul, we have Trevor Jacob, a man willing to risk his body and soul for “likes and subscribes.”

But he crossed the ridiculous crime line when he crashed a plane into a national forest and then posted the video (ahem, evidence) on his channel. Oops! Don’t look now, Trevor, but it’s the Department of Justice!

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Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue and the shoes are red. 
When the pricey and contentious ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz were stolen from a museum, all hope was lost. But hope never dies. And for the slippers, there was no place like home. 

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When most college-age kids need a little excitement, they do extreme sports or snap into a Slim Jim. Shon Hopwood robbed five banks in 11 months. When he was done paying his debt to society, he built himself a totally legal and totally cool new career.

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Behold as juggernaut hard rock band Guns n’ Roses takes on airplanes, beer, gun stores, video games, and the city of Philadelphia. You know where you are? You’re in Ridiculous Crime, baby!

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Basquiat started as a graffiti artist but soon through talent and ambition he became one of the greatest painters in American history, an artist whose works regularly set records for their auction prices. And you know what that means… crime! Meet the art fraudsters pushing fake Basquiats, fraudulent Warhols and counterfeit Harings, and making millions off well-heeled buyers with more money than sense.

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Group think. Collective acts of violence. Humans can get each other pretty riled up. Sometimes that can be for a good cause, but not on this podcast. Aeronauts, magic tricks, seasonal beverages. You never know what will set people off. 

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Rick Deitsch was a business man with a big big plan — he wanted to make Big Snake. He would use science to milk Wall Street of millions by scamming biotech and pharma investors with the hype for novel new medicines his lab created based on… cobra venom! Unsurprisingly, this modern day snake oil salesman’s grift was not a successsssss…

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What are the rules for undercover cops? Well, as we learn from stories about cops shooting cops, an activist who falls in love with an undercover cop, a headless Care Bear with an undercover cop inside who busts a drug queen, and the two precincts of undercover cops who brawled... there are none! This week, it's mayhem and chaos with undercover cops! 

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The Caped Crusader fights crime, but what happens when he IS crime? Stolen movie scripts, missing toys, and the mother of all Bat memorabilia. Tune in! Same crime time, same crime channel!

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For more than 4 decades the CIA – doing their best impression of Wile E. Coyote – tried to kill Fidel Castro. The spy agency made 634 assassination attempts on the Cuban leader. And almost all of them were ridiculous.

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When you decide to prove to a preacher that the Bible is hokum, the most logical thing to do is craft a stone giant, right? Right? George Hull certainly thought so. He put a large man in the ground and a little birdhouse in your soul.

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When a beloved pet goes missing, who do you call? If you’re Paris Hilton you hire a team of pet psychics, dog whisperers and pet detectives. But what about an everyday person? Luckily, for us, there’s a veteran investigator who’s never charged for her services. Bring ‘Em Back Babs:  pet detective.

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What do you get when you mix spiritualism, bereft seekers, kids drinking wine, knuckle cracking, an Arctic explorer, and chicken bones? You get the Fox Sisters, America's original psychic con artists.

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In 1998, the rivalry between Stanford University and UC Berkeley escalated to kidnapping and hostage videos. But in the geeky tradition of both colleges, it was actually a tree-napping. Some Cal frat bros, calling themselves The Phoenix Five, stole the Stanford mascot (…but really, they stole our hearts). Hijinks ensued!

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Most people spice up their boring lives with fun hobbies or social events. That wasn't enough for Lawrence Bader. He went and made himself a whole new life, this time as Omaha, Nebraska's hippest bachelor. Flagpole sitting, war injuries, hearses, pillow piles -- his new life had it all!

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He was not a real rock star but Robb TaLLLLL University played one in his fantasies. In reality, Mr. University lacked star power or musical talent. Kinda a shame, but he was one helluva bank scammer. He made millions as a pretend rock star. Too bad no one really dreams of growing up to be a bank scammer!

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Everybody loves an entertaining exiled royal. And when that royal is exposed as a fraud? Everybody still loves him! From slinging lies in Brooklyn to slinging fancy strawberry desserts for Hollywood celebrities, Prince Mike lived one ridiculous life.

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Like Ricky Bobby, he was a pretend NASCAR driver — only this was no movie. L.W. Wright was a fake racer in real life who took on the legends of NASCAR by scamming his way onto the track at Talladega. “Shoot, this story should be a movie!”

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Pokémon! The cards, the games, the Go, the cartoons, the…theft? Oh yeah, when collectibles get pricey, criminals come out of the woodwork, even the Yakuza. These cards are big money these days, and some people will do anything to steal 'em all. 

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A city as fabulous and sinister and romantic as Venice, Italy, deserves a fabulous, sinister, and romantic cat burglar. The ultra wealthy were honored to be his target, and he was happy to take their priceless works of art (and the occassional cashmere sweater). His crimes were almost as egregious as Elizabeth's butchering of the Italian language.

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The song is the band’s most popular. The legends, the conspiracies, and lore that surrounds the song are incredible. But the legal struggles, inspired criminals, and cocaine antics take center stage as we focus on the Eagles and Hotel California.

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What do you get when you mix millions of dollars in gems, stolen cars, wigs, international crime families, a French detective, and 800 Serbians? You get a heist gang Inspector Clouseau couldn't imagine in his wildest dreams.

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