When 18 year old Ruben Zarate went to rob a store at gunpoint, he was told by the staff that only the manager had access to the safe and he wasn't in the store.

With a flash of brilliance, Zarate came up with a solution to the problem. He gave shop staff his cellphone number and asked them to phone him when the manager arrived. He then left and waited for the staff to call him.

The staff, quite understandably, decided to call 911 instead. Then the police called the robber back on his cellphone to tell him that the manager had arrived with the key to the safe.

Zarate returned to the shop, gun at the ready, only to be shot in the leg by the police. He was charged with three counts of attempted armed robbery and one count of aggravated assault to a police officer, the latter for allegedly pointing a gun at the officer.

WBBM