Lindsay hears the sheriff’s deputies coming and runs down the back stairs of his apartment to the basement where he hides behind some cardboard boxes. Of course, it’s no use, the deputies find 19-year-old Lindsay. That’s what cops do for a living — find bad guys who don’t want to be found.

They arrest and charge him with illegal possession of a firearm, illegal possession of ammunition, and several drug charges.

Lindsay is booked into the county jail where he’s searched, fingerprinted, photographed and put into a holding cell.

The next morning during his preliminary hearing, Lindsay tells the court the gun that deputies seized during their search was in a "common basement" to which tenants from all the other apartments in his building have equal access. Lindsay tells the court he’s never seen the handgun in question before: "It’s definitely not mine!"

The sergeant in charge of the case explains to the judge that when Lindsay was booked into the county jail, correctional officers who searched him noticed a tattoo on his right hip. The tattoo was a life-size rendering of the .380-caliber semi-automatic pistol that’s now held in evidence — complete with the gun’s serial number tattooed on the prisoner’s hip.

The sergeant hands the photograph to the judge and offers to pull up Lindsay’s shirt so the judge could see the tattoo, but the judge shakes his head saying, "The photograph will be adequate for now." Lindsay will be arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court later this week.

The sergeant in charge of the case commented after the preliminary hearing: "This has to be like the world’s dumbest criminal. You don’t see this kind of thing very often."

Our thanks to the West Metro Daily News in Framingham, MA for parts of this story