Addiction is a term often used casually to describe strong preferences. We might say we’re “addicted” to our favorite TV show or snack. While these things bring pleasure and we might feel guilty indulging, we can usually resist them when necessary.
However, for some, certain behaviors become compulsions, even with serious negative consequences. They can’t resist, even if it means legal trouble. These aren’t always clinically recognized addictions, but they’re bizarre compulsions that lead people down dark paths. Here are ten of the strangest, ending in arrests or worse.
10 Collecting Bird Eggs
Imagine someone described as a “one-man machine for devastation” or a “one-man crime wave.” You might picture a street thug. But this is how a 65-year-old British man was described. Daniel Lingham isn’t lurking in dark alleys but around nature reserves. In April 2024, this repeat offender received his third prison sentence for crimes against birds.
Lingham was caught stealing eggs from protected birds. His previous convictions were also egg-related. Strangely, he wasn’t selling them on a black market. He wanted them for his private collection of over 5,000 eggs, many from endangered species.
Lingham admitted he was addicted to collecting eggs. The judge suspended his 2024 sentence but required treatment.
9 Carnivorous Plant Collecting
It’s not just bird egg collectors who go to extremes for rare items. Mat Orchard, an American nepenthes collector, had his collection turn into a harmful addiction. Nepenthes are tropical “pitcher” plants with insect-trapping pitchers. They’re popular among collectors, but young plants take years to grow and are expensive.
Mat, obsessed since college, discovered Southeast Asian sellers offering mature plants cheaply. However, these suppliers illegally raided rainforests. Mat knew this, even knowing a package was intercepted, but couldn’t stop buying, ordering up to 35 at a time.
An undercover officer investigated plant smuggling, and Mat’s Portland apartment was raided. Around 380 plants were seized. He took a plea deal and received three years’ probation.
8 Baseball Card Collecting
Collecting baseball cards is usually a harmless hobby. But some people’s desire for rare items leads them to illegal actions. In 2008, a self-described “borderline addicted” collector was charged with theft. He used his job as a postal worker in Maine to steal a rare 1915 Cracker Jack baseball card.
The card sold on eBay for over $1,000 and was stolen during shipping. The mail handler pleaded guilty, avoiding jail with a suspended sentence. He was fired, fined, and given community service. His attorney stated he was receiving treatment for “obsessive-compulsive behavior surrounding baseball cards.”
7 Hacking Webcams
Collecting baseball cards and carnivorous plants are legal hobbies. But spying on people through webcams isn’t. Stefan Rigo from Leeds, UK, found it addictive.
In 2015, Rigo was convicted of voyeurism and hacking. He used software to control others’ computers and watch them through webcams for five to twelve hours daily over three years. Rigo described himself as “addicted to monitoring people.” The UK’s National Crime Agency called it “one of the more extreme examples.”
He saved explicit screenshots of the people he watched. Rigo was trying to snoop on cybersex. He received voluntary work, had his computer confiscated, and got a suspended jail sentence.
6 Graffiti
Graffiti is a less serious, though still illegal, antisocial hobby. Tagging can be an addiction. A New Zealand psychotherapist explained that people get “a kick out of” tagging, which becomes a compulsive behavior requiring treatment. This followed the conviction of Xan, a prolific tagger in Auckland, for tagging a top art gallery.
Xan claimed he was addicted to graffiti. The Street Art Council runs a street art addiction helpline, suggesting it’s a real issue. Some people can’t stop, even inside their homes.
5 Stock Market Trading
Gambling is known to be addictive. Financial markets offer a similar thrill. Navinder Sarao, a self-confessed trading addict, made an estimated $70 million fortune from his London bedroom in the early 2000s.
He made poor choices, like placing fake trades. Extradited to the U.S. on fraud charges, he was accused of contributing to the 2010 “flash crash.”
Sarao received one year of home incarceration, due partly to his genuine trading addiction and lack of interest in money. U.S. prosecutors admitted he “was not motivated by any greed whatsoever.” The only expensive thing he bought was a £5,000 car.
4 Making Hoax Emergency Calls
Unlike Sarao, most compulsive behaviors offer no reward and can endanger others. Thelma Dennis was prosecuted 60 times over 24 years for making hoax emergency calls in the UK.
Despite prison, she couldn’t stop making calls, often reporting fake bombs. Between 1996 and 2003, she reported about 2,000 fake emergencies. After her 2003 release, she sought help, including electrode therapy.
This resulted in a four-year break, but she was convicted again in 2008, avoiding jail. There have been no reports of further offenses since.
3 Impersonation
People sometimes impersonate professionals like pilots and doctors. In 2013, Phillipe Jernnard, a Frenchman, entered a US Airways cockpit dressed as a pilot. With no apparent reward and a “very bad fake badge,” his arrest was inevitable.
Psychiatry professor Charles V. Ford says they get a thrill from fooling others, like “a hit of cocaine.” This explains why con artists repeat tricks like addicts.
Matthew Scheidt, an 18-year-old from Florida, was convicted in 2012 for impersonating a physician assistant. Four months later, he was caught impersonating a police officer. A psychiatrist noted that some impostors truly believe their lies.
2 Vampirism
Some compulsive behaviors are much more disturbing. In 2013, a 23-year-old Turkish man became addicted to drinking human blood after self-harming and drinking his own.
He then convinced his father to get blood from blood banks, intensifying his addiction. He described his compulsion as “as urgent as breathing” and attempted to stab people to drink their blood, influenced by an imaginary companion, before being hospitalized.
Diagnosed with clinical vampirism, involving compulsive blood drinking and uncertain identity, his cravings diminished after six weeks of treatment, and the blood he drank caused no harm.
1 Extreme Body Modification
In 2024, seven UK men were convicted of crimes related to a shared hobby, argued by the ringleader’s lawyer to be an addiction. Their website, “eunuch maker,” described their activities. They had done this on an unprecedented scale.
There were 13 victims, and the men had also performed surgery on themselves. Ringleader Marius Gustavson had his penis and a leg amputated, while another defendant had his testicles in his freezer.
Gustavson was diagnosed with body integrity dysphoria, a condition causing the desire to remove healthy limbs. His lawyer claimed it started as empowerment after his 11-year marriage ended. Through Gustavson’s website, they mutilated and encouraged others. All pleaded guilty.
These stories highlight the dark side of compulsion, where hobbies and desires spiral into dangerous and illegal behaviors. Addiction can manifest in bizarre ways, leading to devastating consequences for those involved.
Share your thoughts on these unusual addictions in the comments below!
