From a killer who tapes burritos to his victim's arms, to a man who firebombed a Taco Bell for not getting enough meat on a chalupa, to a person who made tamales out of human meat, here are the most heinous, unthinkable, and insane crimes committed with or related to Mexican food.
Mexican food is delicious, but is it good enough to kill for? For the people involved in the crimes on this list, it was. Some of the crimes on this list were crimes of passion, if your passion is "more meat," while others were just drunken mistakes.
Next time you bite into a burrito or a taco, be sure to check it for a hacksaw (yes, that really happened) and give thanks that you're safe and sound, not the victim of an insane Mexican food crime.
The 32 Most Insane Mexican Food Related Crimes,
Naked Nacho Man Arrested for Being Naked, Eating Nachos
A man decided to spend his 23rd birthday running naked and covered in nacho cheese, being found guilty of burglary, and four other charges for the night. THIS, friends, is how you spend a birthday.
Michael David Monn pleaded guilty to burglary, theft, vandalism, indecent exposure, and public intoxication. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but was allowed supervised probation. If he stays out of trouble for the next three years (which he did, as this all happened in 2005), the charges were to have been completely expunged from his record.
"[He] was highly intoxicated, broke into the John Sevier Pool snack bar area, stole some snacks and did some damage and was caught naked with some stolen snacks,"
A police officer found him the morning after in the parking lot of the pool after Monn had scaled an 8 ft. fence and was seen running toward a Jeep with a box of stolen snacks and a container of nacho cheese, which he then poured over himself. He had nacho cheese in his hair, on his face, shoulders, and arms. He reeked of alcohol and was semi-incoherent, according to police.
In his Jeep, the officers of the town of Maryville found clothing and an open bottle of vodka. Because why the hell not.
Source
Woman Pulls Knife Because of Bad Taco Bell Wi-Fi
Forty-eight-year-old Taco Bell lover Amber Henson really needed to get online while eating her burrito in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. So when the fine establishment's Wi-Fi stopped working, she got understandably upset. Less understandable was her reaction. Already frustrated, she dumped a cup of water on a teenage boy who was in her way in front of the soda fountain. She was then kicked out of the restaurant, but waited for the teens in the parking lot.
The chief of police said, "When they left, she confronted them when they were at their trucks and pulled a knife out and said, 'If you want some of me, come on.'" She then fled the scene, but was found and arrested later that day. She was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon on a minor.
Source: Vice
Man Fire Bombs Taco Bell Over Not Enough Meat
In October of 2011, an insane man who takes his Mexican food way too seriously decided to get an XXL chalupa. Now, you might say that a taco consisting of an oversized multi-fried tortilla, excess amounts of almost-meat, and a year's worth of sour cream would be enough to satisfy a man, despite its meat content, but a customer at one particular Taco Bell in Georgia believed otherwise.
He got home, opened up his $3 chalupa, and decided he hadn't received enough meat in it. So he decided he'd do what most of us wouldn't: he went back to the restaurant and asked for more meat. The manager at the restaurant told him that he was sorry, but they were closed.
The man then used a racial slur and then threatened to "re-decorate the place." Which is awesome. What kind of person who watches that many action movies decides to actually bring one-liners into real life? This guy did. "That's all right, I'll just come and re-decorate the place."
A little while later, the staff employees at the drive-thru could smell gasoline and then realized there was a full-fledged fire outside their restaurant.
The man was never found due to the poor quality of the security feed.
The Tamale Bandit
Sherry Wisinger, the owner of Gallery Hair Salon, was a victim of Alician Sanches Garza, "The Tamale Bandit." "In small towns, we are so trusting and we're used to people coming by and selling and we can't buy from everybody, but we try to buy and I just felt like she took advantage of that," said Weisinger.
Here's her MO, as per police officer Robert Moffett: "She's hitting between four and five debit cards a day... She can run anywhere from $400 to $6,000 on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night... She'll take a dollar bill or a 20 dollar bill and sit there and play with it and everybody's turning around, watching and then she'll drop it on the floor and she'll tap dance around it."
With this routine used as a distraction, a second person walks around and swipes wallets, purses, and cards, and then steals the money off of all of them. "And the tamales were not good," said Weisinger. "They were a fraud also." This is the real crime. Some were even said to have been made with cat food.
Garza was eventually caught and is currently facing theft, forgery, and financial instrument as charges that will most likely put her away for a long time.
Source
Cop-Killing Burrito Thief
Scott Curley, 23, was ordered by a judge to go through a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether or not he was competent to stand trial after being arrested, and possibly facing the death penalty, for a crime involving Mexican food.
Curley was facing charges of first degree, premeditated murder, aggravated assault on a police officer, and theft after a string of burglaries in Utah where he would find schools and then break into them to steal weird things - like boxes of burritos.
Deputy Brian Harris caught up with Curley during one of his burrito-stealing sprees and started on a foot pursuit that would spill from Utah to Arizona. Curley, who according to his friends had food stored in various "spider holes" in the mountains, then shot the officer with a high-powered rifle, killing him.
Curley was arrested then and there and his fate is still yet to be determined.
Source
Tamale Chef Kills, Cooks Friend
Taking a page out of a "Tales from the Crypt" episode, or any 80's horror movie you can name, Carlos Machuca, a 56-year-old man who made tamales for a living was arrested in his home after an anonymous phone call was made to the police.
When they arrived at his house,they found the corn husks, fresh maize, and homemade marinade set to just the right ratios/proportions for perfect tamales. They also found the dead, mutilated corpse of an unidentified man in his living room. Not in a cellar, not in the fridge in various parts, and no, not even below the house or buried in a nearby yard, but in his living room. Much like most people on this list, this just guy sucks at crime.
So apparently, after a night of hard drinking, Machuca and a friend of his had been fighting. Machuca stabbed the other man through the heart, chopped him up, then started putting his flesh into tamales to sell to customers which, admittedly, is a pretty solid plan to dispose of a body.
He was caught and it is unknown how many people inadvertently ate the most extremely literal Mexican food anybody has ever had.
Wife Hits Husband with a Burrito, He Responds by Stabbing Her with a Fork
What do you do when you're fed up with your husband's drinking and you'd like him to finally listen to you for once? Suzanne Hurlvert, 51, responded to this dilemma by hitting 66-year-old Carl Owen Smith in the back of the head with a half-eaten Taco Bell Burrito Supreme.
In return, Carl Smith stabbed her in the hand with a fork - which sounds like the most painful thing ever - and walked to the local bar. The fork was lodged so deep in his wife's hand that it had to be removed by doctors at a nearby hospital. Smith reportedly started laughing when deputies showed him photos of the damage he had done.
Shootout Over Raised Beefy Crunch Burrito Price
The Taco Bell Beefy Crunch Burrito is a thing of beauty. It's an enigmatic creamy sauce, with a cheese-type sauce, rice, ground "beef," and f*ckin Fritos in it. It's like when you used to make Doritos sandwiches as a child, only in burrito form. It's surely, a sign that we, as a species, are evolving correctly.
So when one guy realized that this tasty treat from hell had exploded in price from a clean 99 cents, to $1.49, he was so upset he decided it was a good idea (and that the Taco Bell corporation would change the price back down to 99 cents) to shoot an air gun at the manager. But when this wasn't enough, the man decided to take it up a notch by brandishing his semiautomatic assault rifle and pistol while in the Taco Bell parking lot (like ya do).
The police were, of course, called and chased the man while he fled the scene. Three police officers exchanged gunfire with him (yes, they risked their lives over this) and chased him down to the hotel where he was staying. The man then barricaded himself in his hotel room and held strong there until he was eventually arrested. All over $1.49, plus tax.
Source
The Carne Asada Killer
A Latino male was found in May of 2010 on Dairy Road, El Capitan Resevoir in San Diego. Asphyxiation was the cause of death and a plastic bag was the weapon used. This was just the second in a string of murders in 2010 that seemed to be completely unrelated except for one calling card: a half eaten burrito taped to the forearm of the victim. The killer was then dubbed, of course, The Carne Asada Killer (which is kind of a misleading name, since it sounds like he killed carne asada burritos when he, disappointingly, only ever finished half of them).
Despite how hilarious this sounds, the scene was described by a Sheriff's department spokesperson as follows:
Post-mortem, a spear-like metal bar had been thrust through the neck, severing the cartid artery, spilling blood all over the body. The body had been hung from a tree with a large steel chain. The left arm had been dismembered with an axe-like object, exposing bone and ligaments were hanging down like rubber bands, and viscous bursa fluid pus had bubbled up and gelled down the side of the torso like syrup. It was quite disgusting with fallen leaves and bird dropping stuck in the smelly fluid.
Oh, and also the burrito. There was also the burrito. The Carne Asada Killer still has not been caught.
Captain America Arrested with Burrito in Pants
Whenever you take costumes and add drinking to the equation, something unfortunate is going to happen. This was a case when a costume party full of medical professionals in Florida spilled out into the streets during a pub crawl.
A group of the party goers stopped at a local eatery when a doctor dressed as Captain America decided to make a few additions to his costume. He bought a burrito, shoved it down his tights, and proceeded to ask ladies in the restaurant to touch it. When they declined he would remove the burrito and start groping them.
When the police arrived on the scene they could not differentiate between the various costumed people so they had to ask all the Captain Americas to exit the building to be interviewed. Despite the presence of many Captain Americas, the burrito groper was found. To make things worse, he was also caught trying to flush a joint down the toilet.