As I've recounted before, an old law enforcement acquaintance once informed a small group of us young (at the time) men that every criminal he had encountered in his long career combined three primary character traits. The proportions varied, but all three traits were present in every case, those traits being greedy, mean, and stupid.
An Illinois man, accused of sending letters containing a white, granular substance to members of Congress, seems to have gone in large on the "stupid" part of the equation. How?
He bragged about sending the letters in public, and this is the real hoot, he used his own return address.
An Illinois man was charged with two felonies Monday after allegedly sending letters containing an unknown white powder substance to members of Congress, according to a criminal complaint.
Matthew G. Unglesbee was charged with false information and hoaxes and mailing threatening communications after four members of Congress received the letters, which were marked with his return address, according to the complaint.
Unglesbee told the FBI the substance in the letters was salt and that he mailed them as a joke, the complaint read.
Threatening a member of Congress is never a joke, even if you're sending them something that's harmless enough to sprinkle on a baked potato, even if it does bear a passing resemblance to anthrax. In this case, though, it's how Mr. Unglesbee got caught that is actually rather amusing.
The FBI received a tip that Unglesbee had sent the letters on Oct. 16. The tipster had overheard Unglesbee at a restaurant saying he had mailed suspicious substances to members of Congress, the complaint stated.
The tipster allegedly provided authorities with Unglesbee’s full name, address and date of birth.
And here's where it actually gets funny:
All four letters were marked with Unglesbee’s name and return address, according to the complaint.
Now, it may well be that this guy was looking for his 15 minutes, if not of fame, then at least notoriety. We can't speculate as to his political affiliation, as the FBI has not stated which members of Congress received the letters, but it's generally been people on the far Left that are pulling shenanigans like this lately.
The FBI interviewed Unglesbee at his home on Saturday; he confessed to having sent the letters, although the only reason he gave for doing so was that he had overheard other people talking about members of Congress receiving similar threatening letters; one wonders if the FBI asked him, "If you overheard someone talking about jumping off a bridge, would you go jump off one, too?" Unglesbee also reportedly admitted that the material was salt, which didn't stop the FBI from examining the white granular substance in the letters; preliminary lab testing found nothing alarming.
It's hard to understand the motivation of someone like this, but then, as the late, great Paul Harvey was fond of pointing out, "if you could understand it, we'd have to worry about you." But in an era where political threatening seems to be increasing, one supposes it was inevitable that someone this far down the sensibility scale would give it a try.
Sending a threatening letter with your own return address, though. That's like robbing a bank and, instead of demanding the teller hand you cash, asking them to deposit it in your checking account.