Making Mug Shot History
On the night of October 23, the police were called to an attempted burglary scene at a man’s house in Carroll, Iowa. As they rushed to the scene, looking for two men with painted faces and hooded sweatshirts as described, what they found was very… ridiculous.
They had no masks, no hats, nothing on their faces, but simply permanent marker scribbled carelessly and ineffectively. This was more than Carroll Police Chief Cayler had ever witnessed in all of his years in the police force. Cayler said, “I’ve been chief here almost 25 years, been with the department 28½ years and I’ve seen a lot of things that make me laugh and weird things but this was probably the best combination of the two — strangely weird and hilariously funny all at the same time.”
Their disguises made it very easy for the police to pick them out, and they made perfectly weird mug shots when they were brought in.
“We’re very skilled investigators and the black faces gave them right away,” Cayler said jokingly. “I have to assume the officers were kind of laughing at the time. I’ve never heard of coloring your face with a permanent marker.”
23-year-old Matthew Allan McNelly and J, 20-year old Joey Lee Miller, were both charged with attempted burglary with an additional driving under the influence tacked on to0 McNelly. Police suspect that that particular home was targeted because one of the burglars thought their girlfriend was cheating with a man who lived there.
“They probably were not thinking straight and figured, we’ll go out and scare the guy or whatever,” said Cayler. “[They were] being dumb and combine with alcohol it was the perfect storm.”
One of the most memorable mug shots of all time? Probably.