Our top 10 weirdest or craziest crime stories of 2025
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IDAHO FALLS – Eastern Idaho is often home to some very outlandish, disturbing, and straight-up weird crime stories.
Through all of the depressing articles filled with gore and sometimes just genuine evil, it’s important to remember that sometimes, it’s essential to find the humor. Obviously, crime isn’t funny – but sometimes the circumstances are.
Here are, in our opinion, the top ten craziest eastern Idaho crime stories of 2025.
READ | The most read stories on East Idaho News in 2025
#1: Uber driver turns in passenger accused of attempted Idaho Falls bank burglary
This one is a classic in the newsroom when we all need to lift our spirits with a good laugh.
On June 11, a 50-year-old California woman identified as Wendy Bess allegedly fled from Idaho Central Credit Union in Idaho Falls after trying to withdraw a large amount of money from an account that did not belong to her, using a stolen ID.
Employees pressed the panic alarm, and Bess fled in a white GMC Terrain, hitting an officer and dragging him 50 feet across the pavement before he let go.
Officers chased her to the intersection of West 49th South and South 45th East, where they found the car – but not Bess. Little did officers know that she had called an Uber to pick her up just south of the scene.
Soon, an Uber driver pulled his car up to an officer and said that he thought his passenger might be the suspect. Noting the suspicious circumstances and the presence of police in the area, he drove Bess to the closest officers.
She was then arrested and charged with three felony counts of burglary, felonies for grand theft and attempted grand theft, attempting to elude an officer, aggravated battery, and leaving the scene of an accident.
#2: Police arrest nude man allegedly trying to get into Rigby homes
(In all seriousness, we hope this man is okay and has found the help and support he needs.)
On August 22, around 11:15 p.m., a Rigby homeowner noticed a naked man, later identified as 18-year-old Brian Berrios of Rigby, walking in town and trying to get into people’s homes.
Trace Barney told EastIdahoNews.com it was his parents’ house where Berrios chose to make his appearance. They weren’t aware he was on the porch, but found out the next morning when they checked their phone and saw him on their Ring Doorbell. Barney says they do not know the man and have never seen him before.
Barney reports officers found him elsewhere later that night.
Berrios was arrested and taken to the Jefferson County Jail on misdemeanor charges of indecent exposure, resisting and obstructing officers, and disturbing the peace.
#3:Two Utah men allegedly steal $70,000 in cash from D&L Cleaners
This one actually started in July 2024, when police discovered a burglary at D&L Cleaners in Idaho Falls.
In January of this year, the men were identified as Thomas Jeffrey Ward, who was charged with felony burglary and felony grand theft, and Jimmy Jack Olson, who was charged with the same two felonies as Ward and received alternative charges, which allege Olson conspired to help Ward commit the two felonies.
The crazy part here isn’t necessarily that they allegedly broke in and stole $70,000, which is also insane and obviously not a good thing. The part we can’t get over is why there was $70,000 in cash at a dry cleaners?
#4: Do you know this man? Police looking for suspect in food truck burglary
This is a classic case of someone wanting to steal something, but forgetting that technology exists.
On Aug. 3, around 5:30 a.m., a man allegedly broke into Dave’s Fire & Smoke BBQ, a local food truck located at 680 1st Street, and Mi Ranchito Mexicana, a food truck located at 240 East 1st Street.
Thankfully, the owner of Dave’s Fire & Smoke BBQ had invested in high-quality security cameras. Despite the man’s attempt to turn them off, they continued to record, providing police with a clear view of the suspect. Find the video, where the suspect is seen shimmying through a teenie-tiny window, in the link above.
The suspect initially got away on a bicycle with cash, a cell phone, thousands of dollars in equipment, shoes, and other things, as well as damaging the trucks.
The man was later identified as Macario Angulo, and he was arrested and charged with felonies for burglary, two counts of grand theft, and misdemeanor malicious injury to property. In the second case, he is charged with felony burglary, and misdemeanors for malicious injury to property and petit theft.
#5: Man falls asleep in credit union restroom, attracts police interest
The alternative headline for this story was, “Man falls asleep while making a deposit.” That’s a poop joke for those of you who don’t understand humor.
On Tuesday, March 4, Pocatello Police responded to a tripped alarm at the Mountain America Credit Union Yellowstone branch. At first, police believed it may be a break-in.
“You get a bank alarm, any bank alarm, we … respond as though there’s a problem,” said Pocatello Police Lt. Josh Hancock at the time.
After opening the door, the officers announced their presence and stated that they had a K9 unit with them. The man inside the building immediately surrendered and communicated with the police.
He then told officers that he had fallen asleep in the restroom of the building and then woke up to find it closed.
The responding officers secured the scene to ensure there was no danger to the public and did not arrest or file charges against the man.
#6: Local man who illegally shot deer goes to jail, but not for shooting the deer
Obviously, illegally shooting a deer and leaving it to waste isn’t funny; it’s just cruel. However, what actually happened in court was quite amusing.
Nathan Lloyd Archibald was sentenced to four years of probation after pleading guilty to killing a deer and leaving it to waste. During his sentencing hearing, District Judge Steven Boyce reiterated to him the cruelty and harm done by his actions and the fact that he wasn’t licensed to hunt deer at the time.
Toward the end of the sentencing, Boyce noted that not only was Archibald not licensed to hunt, but he also had a suspended driver’s license. And … he had just driven himself to court.
“He stated, ‘He’s aware of the suspension,’ but still drove to the District 7 probation and parole office for his pre-sentence interview. I’m just thinking, who drives for the (pre-sentence investigation) without a license and then says, ‘Yeah, I don’t have a license, but I drove here’?” Boyce said.
Boyce informed the court that the bailiffs had told him they had seen Archibald drive to the court for this sentencing, and sentenced him to complete 60 days in the local jail before he could start his probation.
#7: Man accused of hiding bag of pills in buttocks. Here’s what happened next
Do I really have to state the obvious about why this is funny?
On April 4, 42-year-old Luke Carl Plesner was arrested after Idaho Falls Police Officers allegedly caught him trying to hide a bag of “dirty 30’s” also known as fentanyl pills, in his buttocks.
Not only that, but after he was caught, officers say he tried to remove the bag of drugs from his “anal cavity” and hide them in his mouth. He then allegedly admitted to officers that the pills were fentanyl and that he had ingested five.
Plesnar was charged with felony trafficking fentanyl, felony destruction of evidence and a misdemeanor charge of possessing drug paraphernalia.
Aaaaaaand that’s all we have to say about that.
#8: Man’s traffic ticket found in SUV he allegedly stole and crashed
Sometimes in life, you try your best, but you just don’t succeed. That’s what happened to this man.
On March 27, around 9:30 a.m. Idaho Falls Police were dispatched to a home for a report that a woman’s car, a 2010 Chevrolet HHR, had been stolen. She told officers she saw a man in dark clothing in her driveway around 12:50 a.m.
Weirdly enough, officers had pulled over the exact same kind of car around 1 a.m., and identified the driver as 19-year-old Bryan Artjom Grimes. But they didn’t put the pieces together just yet.
Later that day, the woman messaged the officers that a friend had spotted a car matching the stolen Chevrolet that had crashed in a borrow pit on the 7000 block of East Sunnyside Road. Deputies with the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office found it, and Idaho Falls Police officers searched it.
During the search, officers found something suspicious – a citation from when Grimes was pulled over earlier that morning. With his name on it. In the stolen car.
Grimes was then charged with felony burglary, felony grand theft, and misdemeanor petty theft.
#9: Aberdeen man accused of dealing drugs to veterans; bomb squad called to house after grenades found
This one astonishes us for many reasons; why was he selling to elderly veterans? How many elderly veterans are doing cocaine? Why were there so many live grenades? The list goes on.
On Nov. 7, a deputy with the Bingham County Sheriff’s Office initiated a traffic stop of a vehicle driven by 77-year-old Freamont Jess Ellis of Aberdeen after a silver truck ran a stop sign near 1900 South.
Once the deputy arrived next to the driver’s side of the truck, the deputy allegedly smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from within, causing Ellis to allegedly tell the deputy he had some marijuana in the truck, and patted a plastic ammo case.
Here is a list of everything the deputy found on Ellis and in his truck:
- A loaded pistol
- 4 loaded magazines
- 31.7 grams of psychedelic mushrooms
- 35.6 grams of a brown substance
- 338.75 grams of powder
- 31.7 grams of brown powder
- 70 grams in 5 baggies of brown powder
- 5 syringes of 5 ml yellow liquid
- 92.56 grams in 3 bags of powder
- 116.55 grams in 4 bags of marijuana
- 1 plastic tube of cocaine
Ellis was read his Miranda rights and was asked if he was dealing narcotics, which he told the deputy he was dealing to veterans in the area, “but not young guys.”
At the man’s home, detectives found a pound of marijuana next to a safe in a detached shop next to the home, and inside the safe, there were vials of THC. During the search, a detective looked through a plastic bin and discovered multiple hand grenades.
Explosive material had been placed inside the grenades, and they had been sealed with a fuse attached. The search was put on pause, and a bomb squad from Idaho Falls was called out to assess the explosives.
A new search warrant was obtained for the explosives, and on Nov. 8, the bomb squad found nine grenades and destroyed them on the scene. An empty grenade was seized and later returned.
Ellis was booked into the Bingham County jail, where he faces five felony charges of unlawful possession of a bomb, trafficking methamphetamine, possession of a controlled substance, and two counts of manufacture, delivery, or possession of a controlled substance.
#10: 16-year-old busted for failing to signal; cops find lots of drugs in his car
Last but certainly not least, a classic small mistake ruined this kid’s whole day, and potentially his next few years.
On Sept 22, an officer with the Rigby Police Department stopped a car after the driver reportedly failed to signal while turning off East Short Street onto South Clark Street.
The driver, an unidentified 16-year-old, pulled over, and cops say there was a “strong odor of marijuana coming from inside the vehicle.”
Officers then searched the car, and allegedly found a black backpack containing 74 grams of suspected marijuana, 43 flavored THC vape cartridges, 21 grams of suspected Psilocybin mushrooms, scales, plastic baggies, and $306 in cash.
The lesson here is to pay attention in Driver’s Ed, and to signal for at least five seconds before turning. And also, don’t mess with drugs.
Comment below with any crazy crime stories we may have missed, and we look forward to writing about more weird things in 2026!