Here are five silly weapons that have been used in stealing from unsuspecting victims:
Banana
A robber had once stolen his “weapon” from the shop he was trying to rob.
CCTV camera showed the young crook cycling up to a Philadelphia grocery store and parking his bike for a getaway.
He then grabbed a banana off the shelf and stuck it in his pocket. Staff were fooled that it was a gun and he escaped with cash and cigarettes.
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Potato
A would-be bandit was arrested in Providence, Rhode Island, after trying to rob not one, but two, shops armed with a potato.
Gary Deming, 34, was caught last April after pretending the veg was a gun at a dry cleaners and a convenience store, where the manager chased him off with a more effective weapon – a baseball bat.
Courgette
New York crook Walter Strong didn’t have a gun for his hold up – but he did have a courgette in his pocket to improvise as a gun.
He escaped with £1,350 – until he showed the “weapon” to a neighbour, who called police. He was arrested but managed to escape three times before finally being jailed.
Trigger finger
Steven King, 30, used the old finger-and-thumb in the pocket trick to pretend he had a gun when holding up a California bank in 1997.
Unfortunately he failed to keep his hand in his pocket... which sort of gave the game away.
Dog
A bandit in Tuscon, Arizona decided to take man’s best friend along to a stick-up.
Cops released CCTV footage after he calmly robbed a bank while carrying his pet Chihuahua.
He made off with his loot and his pet in a basket. Police never found him.
