Pro tip for criminals: You want to leave as few clues as possible about your identity for police to find. It's a good idea, for example, to not leave any fingerprints or DNA, but that's graduate-school-level thievery advice compared to, say, "Don't leave your cell phone, which has a picture of you as the background, in the car you just robbed."
Johnny McElroy apparently needs a refresher on that last part.
On Nov. 3, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office received three complaints about thefts from motor vehicles in Painesville Township, Lake County Sheriff Daniel Dunlap said.Among items stolen from the vehicles were a purse and its contents, a global positioning system and a credit card.
During the course of the investigation, a Lake County deputy sheriff located a cell phone in one of the vehicles in question. It was believed that the suspect in the theft dropped his cell phone in the vehicle during the crime, Dunlap said.
The cell phone had a picture of McElroy on its screen and it was determined that the phone belonged to McElroy.
Oh, and in a real shocking finale to this story, during his police interview McElroy admitted to being drunk and having smoked crack during his criminal escapades.
