11 Star Wars Inspired Crimes

Inspired by the following "Star Wars" characters, a handful of "fans" felt The Force flowing through their veins — mostly the Dark Side.

'I am your robber'

"Star Wars" fans in Springfield, Ill., must have been shocked when Darth Vader revealed himself not as Luke's father, but as a movie-theater thief. Police say a man dressed as Darth Vader walked into a Showplace Eight theater May 21 and shoved an employee out of the way, grabbed cash from the register and then dashed into a nearby wooded area.


Blinded by the light saber

Two Star Wars fans in England were severely burned after engaging in a mock battle with homemade light sabers. Police say Mark Webb, 20, and Shelley Mandiville, 17, filled fluorescent light tubes with gasoline and lit them on fire, according to The Sun. The makeshift swords exploded and covered the would-be Jedis with burning fuel. Neither were charged with a crime.


'A Jedi craves not these things'

An Ohio mother and her son allegedly tried to upset the balance of The Force in 1999 by stealing Pepsi promo signs featuring "Episode I - The Phantom Menace" characters from a service station. After Shiella Moffett and James Zawacki were arrested, police found a tape in their car of two people "speaking like Yoda," according to one officer. On the tape, a male voice states, ""We are bandits in the night," followed by a female voice saying, "Yoda is accomplice to burglary. May the police force not be with us."


'I have you now'

A Florida pizza deliveryman was confronted with the awesome power of the Dark Side in October 2004, when a man dressed as Darth Vader tried to rob him. The driver found no one home at a delivery address, but when he returned to his car, Vader appeared and demanded all his money, according to Fox News. The deliveryman jumped in his car and sped away, but not before getting shot with a stun gun. Police conducted an successful manhunt for the faux Vader.


'Fear ... fear is my ally'

For the clerks at B.J.'s Wholesale Club in Leominster, Mass., the phantom menace seemed pretty real in 1999. Toting handguns instead of light sabers, two men dressed as Darth Maul burst into the superstore and took $80,000 in cash and merchandise, according to police. The hooded villains then stole a clerk's pickup truck for their getaway. Detectives lifted prints off the truck and arrested Jason Palmer, 23, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The other costumed Sith Apprentice was never caught.


Steal him they did

Fuzzy, green and worth $4,000, a Yoda display at an Antioch, Calif., supermarket vanished in May 1999. Police said two thieves were reportedly planning to sell the Jedi master to buy marijuana. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Yoda was not found, although police nabbed the suspected getaway driver. It is not known if authorities ever captured the second suspect.


Return of the Jedi

Luke Skywalker was light-years away from Tattooine when he appeared in a Pennsylvania courtroom on charges of indecently assaulting a man in 2003, according to the Press Association News. The namesake, who appeared dressed in a navy T-shirt and trousers, nodded when the court clerk asked him, "Are you Luke Skywalker?" Skywalker denied the charges and was granted conditional bail.


Ben stealin'

Though some might consider North Dakota a galaxy far, far away, police in Bismarck didn't believe a car thief who identified himself as Obi-Wan Kenobi. When officers captured the culprit in 2001, he claimed he was the venerable Jedi knight, saying, "I was just obeying orders from The Force," according to Road & Track. The thief went so far as to sign a police document as "Obi-Wan Kenobi," but officers resisted the apparent Jedi mind trick and arrested him anyway.


Yoda, not wookie, robs bookie

Armed robbers, one wearing a Yoda mask, burst into a bookie's office in London in June 2000. Conventionally armed with a pistol and knife, the men were not seeking enlightenment through The Force, but rather all the cash they could carry. They took the money and sped off in an earthbound van, according to the Guardian Streatham. Police linked the raid to another just like it on a local post office.


The phantom menace

Darth Vader's mask may have kept him alive, but it did nothing whatsoever for the unfortunate corpse that was removed from a Long Island, N.Y., family crypt in 2003. Three teens were accused of stealing the body, dressing it in the Vader mask and taking it to a Thanksgiving weekend party. At least two of the teens pleaded guilty and received probation and fines.


 Android hostage crisis

Although Darth Vader is usually the bad guy, he became a victim in a San Antonio library in 1996. The aggressor? C-3PO, the lovable, if slightly annoying, droid. Jeff Cole, a 23-year-old man wearing a Superman T-shirt, pulled a gun on a teenage student and forced him to don a Vader mask while he put on a C-3PO mask. Police were called in to end the hostage standoff, according to the San Antonio Express-News. They arrested Cole, but not before he made a phony bomb threat and yelled "Monkeys! Monkeys!" at the gathered crowd.