Flintstones Mobile Thieves Serve Their Sentence

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – This comic book story is shaping up to be an instant classic.

The three teens dressed in Flintstones costumes outside Sacramento's World's Best Comics are actually serving a sentence.

"Everybody had heard about this and then they finally caught the guys, so they're up here," said store patron Richard Justice.

Like Fred Flintstone himself in one episode, police caught up with these Flintstone car thief culprits. The boys are said to have stolen a replica car from the front of the store back in December. They put in a pickup late one night and rode away. But cops cracked the case, got a confession and the car back.

These crooks caved in, like a Flintstone front door.

"They were just embarrassed about the whole thing because it's just so silly, so they just kind of nodded yes," World's Best Comics owner Dave Downey said.

Downey agreed not to press charges on one condition: the boys would have to work at his store instead.

"It was decided that they would also be in Flintstones costumes," Downey said.

A Fred and Barney brush with the law – and a punishment to fit the crime

Downey said his sales skyrocketed Saturday.