If you've had better things to do than watch TV news burst into a flaming parody of itself, you maybe missed true crime's best geek moment of the week.

Armed with semi-automatic rifles, two robbers at a Maryland video game shop ignored boxes of expensive electronics to instead score unreleased copies of "Call of Duty: Black Ops."

Set on soldier turf, the game is to geeks what Lady Gaga's next album will be to gay guys: a big deal. When it was released on Tuesday -- two days after the mini-heist -- gamers started queuing up around midnight to wait for a copy.

We can't help imagining that under those masks, the thieves were actually two pimple-faced Napoleon Dynamite types just dying to blow up make-believe Nazi zombies a few days before the rest of us.

In the spirit of illicit nerdiness, we've rounded up six of the geekiest crooks to grace the criminal world.


Darth Vader Bank Robber
Behold this triumphant moment in nerd history, when a Long Island stick-up kid robbed a Chase Bank while dressed in full Star Wars garb. (Darth Vader would be so proud.)


Robot Robbers
In the nerd world, there's a phenomenon that occurs when one geek sees another geek's toy. Sometimes he launches into a jealous rage. In the case of these British thieves who stole nine robot heads from a Sherburn factory, it's likely a serious case of robot envy.

Comic Heist
You know your obsession with comics has become a problem when you take aerial photos of an old guy's house and then hire a group of hoodlums steal his collection of antique comic books. That's what cops say this New York businessman (turned real-life Dr. Doom) did in July.

Dinosaur Burglars
Do you ever wish dinosaurs still existed? And that you could ride on their backs across a mountainside, a la "The Land Before Time"? Well, this Mexican burglar nerd extraordinaire probably does. He somehow managed to steal a 40-foot remote control Tyrannosaurus rex robot worth about $70,000 from the "Walking With the Dinosaurs" exhibit.

Klingon Capers
Sometimes a nerd double-books himself. What happens when you've scheduled a very serious Star Trek role-playing session on the same day you're supposed to rob two 7-Elevens? If you're this bandit, you use a Klingon sword (or "Bat'leth") to stick up the Colorado convenience store.



Dungeons and Dragons Bust
And finally, the pinnacle of nerdy places to get arrested for a bank robbery: a Dungeons and Dragons meet-up, where this Colorado man was pretending to be a wizard. Regrettably, nobody called the reality police.