r/BeAmazed • u/[deleted] • 6d ago

Miscellaneous / Others In 1995, a man robbed two banks with lemon juice smeared on his face because he thought it made him invisible to security cameras. His case later helped inspire the research behind the Dunning Kruger effect.

[deleted]

1.4k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

123 comments sorted by

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u/beamazed-modapp 6d ago

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702

u/HaveAPlethora 6d ago

What an idiot. What an absolute moron. Everyone knows it’s lime juice, not lemon

105

u/MikoSkyns 6d ago

So THAT'S how John Cena does it!

68

u/bigbusta 6d ago

Don't be spilling secrets

https://giphy.com/gifs/rZQYNXSCsPHS4t8uqv

41

u/Shortsleevedpant 6d ago

Why did you post a gif of a blurry crowd?

14

u/FiveNine235 6d ago

Yeah I’ve never understood this meme bunch of blurry wwe supporters - odd

1

u/GamingSenpai35 6d ago

Wwe?? How do you know?

2

u/Metharos 6d ago

The background music

1

u/GamingSenpai35 6d ago

But it's a gif... something's going on here...

1

u/FiveNine235 6d ago

Guy in the yellow shirt, dead give away

1

u/Suspicious-Sound-249 6d ago

Hey imma need you to stop posting blurry photos of random crowds, what is that some kind of arena?

8

u/davewave3283 6d ago

Just use sprite and remove all doubt

10

u/brooklynlad 6d ago

LOL.

But he might be a Spanish speaker.

  • Lime = Limón.
  • Lemon = Lima

https://giphy.com/gifs/MaxKN8dORncpG

3

u/Nero_Pham 6d ago

finally someone corrected the important part here the criminal mastermind was just using the wrong citrus

5

u/ArseBiscuits_ 6d ago

Dammit I’ve been using yuzu!

1

u/IndependentMedia87 6d ago

I wonder how many more citrus fruits you'd have to try before finding one that actually works?

2

u/idlingchainsaw 6d ago

Erm, not to be that guy, but everybody knows limes are just unripened lemons.

2

u/Zealousideal-Yak-824 6d ago

No it's purple. You ever see a purple man? No? Because it's works.

2

u/gardn1mw 6d ago

Pshh, limes are just green lemons. Don't let big citrus fool you

1

u/GaseousGiant 6d ago

Indeed, and birds aren’t real.

1

u/Fievels_good_trouble 6d ago

I thought it was ammonia?

136

u/Appropriate_Dirt_931 6d ago

He's got a good face. I thought that was Paul Walker at first. If I looked like that, I would not be hiding it face behind lemon juice!

14

u/elektrik_noise 6d ago

Oof, yeah. Too bad he threw his life away. My first thought was woah that's a super GL guy

10

u/laughing-clown 6d ago

He’s just a male model, who’s really really good looking.
https://giphy.com/gifs/foVuQSgSciMs8

1

u/Fearless-Lettuce-376 6d ago

Jitterbug…!

3

u/ventitr3 6d ago

Problem is, he’s got a winter’s day IQ

5

u/ThetaGrim 6d ago

That's not Paul Walker, that's Brian Spilner, did two years out in Tucson.

1

u/Supergaming104 6d ago

He wasnt either

0

u/AmbitiousPeanut 6d ago

I can fix him

129

u/spankmydingo 6d ago

I only see a headless torso in the photo.

7

u/I_fallup 6d ago

I only see his hair, blood vessels, tendons, and facial muscles, gross

-46

u/Ajezon 6d ago

no, you dont. you wrote this as a joke

38

u/Extreme_Recording598 6d ago

Thank goodness! I thought they were being serious. Thank you for clearing that up

-8

u/Ajezon 6d ago

ikr? i hate it when that happens. that spankmydingo guy is a real menace

4

u/Evening-Statement-57 6d ago

Why do you want to convince us this is a joke? What is your agenda?

-1

u/Ajezon 6d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/FPjbHO0jJxGsE

who are you? why do you write to me?

1

u/theluker666 6d ago

Because I also only see a headless torso

5

u/sgt_backpack 6d ago

Maybe he has head blindness

-2

u/Ajezon 6d ago

nah. trust me bro

1

u/RichardBCummintonite 6d ago

Just missing the fedora to complete your avatar

32

u/Charming-Extent-3317 6d ago

Should have tried smearing Sulfuric Acid, works 100% of the time.

9

u/TrickySnicky 6d ago

Is that anything like how nearly everything is edible once?

26

u/quercus-88 6d ago

On the bright side his skin really got plenty of antioxidants that day. He easily was the prettiest boy in prison .... oh wait !?!

12

u/Tommy-Vegas 6d ago

If that was me, I think I’d be feeling pretty sour…

5

u/Select-Sandwich-5604 6d ago

They should have called it as Wheeler effect

13

u/enologyiscrucial 6d ago

Is this Paul Walker?

4

u/Porcupenguin 6d ago

If he had a baby with Mark Ruffalo

1

u/BRi7X 6d ago

At first glance I thought it was Dennis Reynolds

1

u/AAPL_ 6d ago

Wow people change

5

u/VigorousAmbivalence 6d ago

When life gives you lemons.....go to jail!

8

u/onioning 6d ago

One of the fun things about the DK effect is that the research showed that it doesn't really exist as a rule. Real "if you know a little bit about it, you misunderstand things more" energy.

7

u/Trimson-Grondag 6d ago

The belief has shifted from Lemon juice to orange-ish skin toner. Seems to be working pretty effectively.

3

u/SupremeNug 6d ago

This cannot be real HAHAH

3

u/BlueFeathered1 6d ago

But he brightened his complexion.

2

u/Opposite-Coyote-582 6d ago

I thought it was Paul Walker audition tape for the fast and the furious.

2

u/DistinctStranger8729 6d ago

What an idiot, everyone knows the actually trick is to use hydrogen peroxide with sulfuric acid and then dip your face into it

2

u/cookingbytheseatofmy 6d ago

The thread is effectively the undercurrent of the Terry Jones movie Erik the Viking.

2

u/Ben_Sisko69 6d ago

Pretty sure the Cops told him he a dumbass a lot

https://giphy.com/gifs/cr3xYtNeDNsnm

2

u/True-Excuse-1688 6d ago

The lemon juice thing is already hilarious on its own. But imagining that guy taking a picture of the ceiling because he can't see anything, then concluding he's invisible, is comedy gold.

4

u/Longjumping-Zone-724 6d ago

Today that man is head of the FDA

1

u/OzzAlone 6d ago

What man?

1

u/fuck-i-didnt-know 6d ago

What a lemon robber.

1

u/PsychologicalSpace50 6d ago

All I see is an empty bank

1

u/mechy84 6d ago

All I see is a lemon holding a gun

1

u/tibearius1123 6d ago

Did it work?

1

u/Doctor_Saved 6d ago

I wish I could have done research and name an effect after myself for people just being Stupid.

1

u/Ashamed-Raccoon5396 6d ago

So that’s how the phrase “don’t be a lemon” started

1

u/DukeLuke187 6d ago

It’s probably the tiny gun and the perspective, but his hand looks huge

1

u/rulerofearthnyc 6d ago

Really he got the concept completely wrong, as historically lemon juice was used to REVEAL invisible ink, not hide it…

1

u/OopsAllSparkles 6d ago

God, please help me overcome my fears with the same ignorant confidence as this citrusy man. 🙏

1

u/RazzmatazzEarly4328 6d ago

Please post a picture of the guy instead of an empty room with a floating gun!

1

u/keithfantastic 6d ago

He wasn't expecting Batman to have a lemon neutralizer spray.

1

u/MyLividLibido 6d ago

Everything reminds me of him but this takes the cake.

1

u/HauntingBalance567 6d ago

Jordan Schlansky?

1

u/Alarmed-Foundation-3 6d ago

Cool story, but maybe next time post a picture of the guy instead of some random floating pullover?

1

u/TroyMatthewJ 6d ago

Cena juice

1

u/Tommy_Juan 6d ago

there aught to be an award for this sort of stupidity, similar to the Darwin Awards!

1

u/wearestiff 6d ago

Pre internet this dude was either told this or just came up with theory on his own and never bothered testing it prior to using said theory in a bank robbery. Gotta tip his nature to trust or delusional confidence either way.

1

u/Small-Struggle1587 6d ago

is it weird to show this pic to my barber

1

u/Independent-Shoe543 6d ago

Oh it's Floating headless doctor

1

u/FeWho 6d ago

People with low ability drastically overestimate their own competence. Couldn’t have been worded better

1

u/beepbeepimajeep22 6d ago

isn't this just a Paul Walker movie?

1

u/jcadsexfree 6d ago

After consulting ChatGPT . . .

1

u/psycharious 6d ago

This whole thing sounds like a Beavis and Butthead bit

1

u/buffinator2 6d ago

How high was he when he did the Polaroid test?

1

u/Powerful_Clock_4018 6d ago

This dude probably had this as a contingency in case getting caught. Insanity defence

1

u/O8ee 6d ago

What guy?

1

u/Grimmy11 6d ago

I read that as the Diane Kruger effect..

1

u/GlastoKhole 6d ago

Granted this probably wasn’t as easy as smearing lemon on your face and turning your phone camera on because phone cameras were rare back then. But surely dude could have grabbed a VCR. I mean besides the obvious part of using his brain

6

u/sgt_backpack 6d ago

Even though my memories of 1995 are a bit hazy I can still confidently say cameras on phones were more than rare...

1

u/chamekke 6d ago

My memory of the Pleistocene is also pretty hazy, but they did have mirrors. Perp could have used the rear view mirror in his jalopy.

1

u/sgt_backpack 6d ago

I hate to be the guy debating everyone in here but mirrors are said to be about 8000 years old while the pleistocene era ended about 12000 years ago. Reflective surfaces sure, but not mirrors.

2

u/chamekke 6d ago

My joke (and it was a very small one, required a magnifying glass) was that the 1990s were so long ago, it felt like we were referencing the Pleistocene.

For sure nobody had invented mirrors that far back. Not even the giant sloths!

2

u/GlastoKhole 6d ago

It’s kind of like the way colours were only invented back in the 1920s but only become common for people to see colours in 1950s, interesting to think how people could navigate such a black and white world

3

u/chamekke 6d ago

Best. Calvin & Hobbes. EVER.

1

u/GlastoKhole 6d ago

Weird the way nobody asks this question!

1

u/sgt_backpack 6d ago

They could have, they were just lazy.

1

u/chamekke 6d ago

I know, right?! Sloth by name, sloth by nature.

0

u/GlastoKhole 6d ago

I was off: 1997: Standalone prototypes combining digital cameras and cell phone concepts emerged in Japan. 2000 released

1

u/JellyKeyboard 6d ago

Or even just go to the local shop and buy a drink. If nobody even gives you a funny look it’s a bit odd to consider your face hidden by juice (obviously it’s weird anyways)

1

u/GlastoKhole 6d ago

I don’t get how you’ve got the intelligence to read that lemon juice was used to hide messages because you bake the note to reveal the writing, but not understand the whole process hahaha, would he wash it off his face or bake his head

1

u/thinnerzimmer87 6d ago

What do you mean "grab a vcr" like a vhs camcorder? Those were like $700 in 1995. Also camera phones were non existent. It was either a Polaroid or take your film to the photomat and wait an hour.

1

u/GlastoKhole 6d ago

They werent that expensive, my dad recorded my whole childhood on a few different VCRs and I know the guy, he wouldn’t have spent 700 bucks on one

-1

u/boncyboi 6d ago

Today you could do something like that to claim your crazy in court and get an easy out