Caught red-handed: Man charged for meatball theft after his red sauce-smeared face gives him away

A Pennsylvania man was apprehended by police for allegedly stealing a pot of meatballs from a homeowner's garage. But what exactly gave him away? It was the red sauce smeared on his face and clothes.

Leahman Glenn Robert Potter, 48, was caught on Monday, 26 February, after the homeowner in Hazleton Township, Pennsylvania, returned to his house to find that his pot of meatballs had mysteriously gone missing.

It was only when the homeowner noticed Potter standing outside his house with red sauce smeared on his face and clothes, he realised that the meatballs had been stolen.

He immediately called the police, who arrived at the scene after which they found the pot on the street outside his home. Potter, however, had left the area by then.

Police told the Hazleton Standard Speaker's website that they managed to track down Potter based on the details given to them by the homeowner and later arrested him in his home in a neighbouring town.

He was charged with burglary, trespass and theft, and was subsequently sent to Luzerne County prison, the Associated Press reported.

This is definitely not the first time an individual or a group has been involved in a goofy attempt at thievery. History is littered with examples, some of them almost unbelievable.

Recently, surveillance footage from Shanghai's Public Security Bureau captured the moment a would-be burglar didn't look where he was throwing and managed to lob a brick straight at his accomplice's head. The brick was thrown in an attempt to break a window of the premises they were trying to burgle.