The First Bank Robber to Discover Crazy Trick | Tales From the Bottle
This bank robbery was the first of its kind – and in all likelihood, the last.
“On January 6, 1995, McArthur Wheeler and Clifton Earl Johnson robbed two banks in the Greater Pittsburgh area at gunpoint. At 2:47 p.m., at the Swissvale branch of Mellon Bank, one of them stuck up the teller with a semi-automatic handgun while the other waited in line. They left together after obtaining US$5,200 (equivalent to $10,730 in 2024). The other robbery took place at Fidelity Savings Bank in Brighton Heights.
Neither robber wore a mask or otherwise attempted to disguise themselves, having instead applied lemon juice to their faces. According to Wheeler, Johnson had told him lemon juice would make one invisible to security cameras, akin to how it functions as invisible ink. Although initially skeptical, Wheeler had tested this method by covering his face with lemon juice and capturing an image of it with a Polaroid camera. As he was missing from the resulting photograph, he trusted the method to be effective. Detectives believed his absence in the image was caused either by a bad film, a maladjusted camera, or Wheeler having unintentionally pointed the camera away from his face.
Johnson was arrested on January 12. A surveillance photograph of Wheeler was broadcast as part of a Pittsburgh Crime Stoppers segment with the 11:00 p.m. news on April 19. Anonymous tips subsequently led to Wheeler’s arrest at 12:10 a.m. on April 20, less than an hour after the broadcast. When shown the photographs in which he had been identified, Wheeler was shocked and exclaimed “But I wore the lemon juice. I wore the lemon juice.” Johnson pleaded guilty to the heist at Mellon Bank as well as two unrelated robberies from 1994. He testified against Wheeler and was given a five-year prison sentence on October 27. Judge Gary L. Lancaster sentenced Wheeler to 24+1⁄2 years in prison, followed by three years of probation, on January 5, 1996, for the Swissvale stickup. Charges for the Brighton Heights case were dropped.”
More on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Greater_Pittsburgh_bank_robberies
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@Qxir
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
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@pizzlerot2730
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Dunning, to Kruger: "I wish we could come up with a new project… Let's check the news"
:: the monkey's paw curls ::
@42Oregon
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
It took me until 2:35 to realize it's the Dunning-Kruger effect. 🤣
@alvaroeibes2130
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
And now with the help of AI, a videogame can be created without effort. So, a confident stupid was right or we are going to be stupids with ai
@TweakdRaccoon
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Nice to know the Dunning-Krueger effect came from stupid bank robbers and lemon juice
@WilliamSchattner
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Even the US military considers people with an IQ under 80 unfit for service, for not being able to do the easiest jobs but nonetheless around 10% of the population has an IQ below 80 and is still allowed to vote in elections and drive cars. The lunatics are truely running the asylum.
@Anodyne_Akôn
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Lemon's good, but not THAT good.
@jacktribble5253
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
I first heard this story on an episode of "Dumb Crook News."
@bf3949
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Instructions unclear: lemon juice is in my eyes. Pls halp!
@MetsanAsukas
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Omg im so dumb, i watched the vid, then came back LATER because.. oh, i see what you did there, in the title.. derrrp 😂 🎉 one crazy new trick!
@jiggsborah7041
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Maybe they were the wrong type of lemon.
@trianglemoebius
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
I thought the twist was going to be that someone else had been wearing a latex mask to make him look like a known criminal, so that said criminal would be arrested and nobody would believe it was someone else.
Honestly, now that I say it, that's probably a solid crime… I should find banks in my area.
(for legal reasons, this is a joke)
@lonelyPorterCH
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
He was so stupid they wrote papers about him, lol^^
@jek__
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
poleets
@alexeyeliseev6322
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
There's three minutes of porn in this video, overlaying the footage, but its all covered in lemon juice
@RalphIvanDelaTonga
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Interesting stuff
@prollymarkus
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
i wonder if him not seeing himself in the polaroid was because he just didn’t let it develop at all… like he was REAL dumb
@NightmareFckr420
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
He did it all wrong, you're supposed to put the lemon juice in your eyes. If you can't see the camera, the camera can't see you.
@R3TR0J4N
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
"BANKS JATE THIS SINGLE TRICK "CLICK NOW" "
@kitychanel7067
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
This person bought the wrong lemon. He should have bought the imported ones from China.
@eightcoins4401
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
The actual trick was the ringman getting another person foolish enough to commit the crime
@Leatherargento
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
I know I could do a terrible job at just about anything on Earth. If people paid for entertaining mediocrity, I'd be a billionaire!
@Leatherargento
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
I love the idea of Ronald McDonald as the First Son!
@jakeconer
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
3:55 maybe the Polaroid wasn’t cleaned and produced a blurry photo
@taylor3621
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Poliitz
@adamesd3699
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Ohhh, so THIS is the origin story of the Dunning Kruger Effect! Useful to know. Helps explain why we started this ridiculous war with Iran.
@Coffy-chan
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Problem is if you tried to remove people like this from society, you have to remove like 90% of society. People just are this dumb.
@benruniko
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
I will see your videos since i am a subscriber, but ONLY if you lay off the lemon juice. It makes the algorithm pretend you don’t exist 😂
@WokeFatigue-e5q
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
My defense would have been that everyone knows that people always wear masks when robbing a bank. Obviously the robbers were wearing a mask and said mask just resembles me a bit. Nobody robs a bank maskless after all. Then I'd look toward the jury and say "So if some bank robber bought a mask that looks somewhat like juror #3 and robbed a bank….the cops would just automatically arrest juror #3 and throw him behind bars simply because of some minor facial resemblance to some mask bought by a crook at a gag shop or halloween shop? Then I'd submit into evidence a bunch of halloween masks of celebrities and presidents I bought and ask the prosecutor if I had wore this mask while robbing a bank, would they go arrest Bill Clinton? Then I'd look back at the jury and mention that at the Halloween/gag shop I happened to notice masks that resembled several jury members…then I'd rest my case.
@BobbyShope-dw9gu
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
REALLY?! One look at his lemon juice-covered face in any mirror (or reflected off the darkened windows on the outside of the bank) should have given him a clue, right? He's either lying or he's stupid.
@nicleur6949
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Ok, gunman was the idiot so was the look-out supposed to be engaging in some machevalian revenge scenario against the other?
@jesterlampoon-t1j
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Mentally disabled is an IQ of 70 or less… So a guy with 71 is fair game.
@broguns24
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
The term is now called mitwit
@Hwyadylaw
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
5:34 I just want to point out that this graph doesn't show the Dunning-Kruger effect. People with less domain knowledge are more likely to overestimate their ability, but they don't lower their confidence as they learn more. Basically the graph is more of a consistent rise than a rollercoaster, and also includes the assessed actual competence together with the self-evaluation so that you can see how confidence goes up slower than actual competence.
@grinningtiki220
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Most polaroid cameras have a fixed focal range. If he held it at arms length to take a selfie he would have been out of focus while the background was in focus as he was to close to the lens. This would confirm to him the assumption the lemon juice had made him appear blurry.
@K1LLA_KING_KONG
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
In Indonesia they believe if your not wearing any pants you won't be seen by cameras. So there's many CCTV footage of Indonesian criminals wearing no pants. Half naked.
@TransistorBased
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
If enough lemon juice was used, the Polaroid photo may have just gotten a bad reflection of the flash off the liquid surface that made him appear 'invisible'
@townsendliving9750
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
These guys are complete idiots. It's lime juice. Everybody knows that….
@crashnreset6987
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Idiots!…… Everyone knows it's lime juice that hides your face from cameras ;p
@cthulholmhastur5317
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
🤔 I blame this level of 😵💫 on The inventors of Skibidi Toilet, who traveled back in time to make mischief.
@Parker--
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
“Make game fun?”
“No, make it Smite.”😂😂😂
@svihl666
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Daym
@BlockCheddar
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Politz Arefted
@sodorcustoms
July 20, 2026 at 2:27 pm
2:10 ???