Artist Offers Up Caricature Drawing of Suspect Who Stole $500 From Him

Talk about a cartoonish crime straight out of 'The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show' ... cops are on the lookout for a thief who can only be described with a drawing, albeit a pretty good one.

This story's hilarious, even though the man who got burned probably isn't laughing. A street artist in Riverside, CA claims he was jacked 2 weeks ago during the city's Festival of Lights after drawing a would-be customer's caricature ... who then made off with his money bag.

Riverside police say the artist told them the suspect -- who's described as a 5-foot, 1-inch black man in his early 20s with black hair and a mustache -- requested a caricature of himself, sat down for the entire session and then allegedly snatched $500 from the artist.

Sounds like the suspect made a clean getaway (for now, anyway) and the only thing cops have to go off is the portrait he left behind. Cops note ... his features are exaggerated!

That said, they're asking for the public's help in IDing and nabbing this crook. Our suggestion -- call in the Scooby-Doo crew, or any number of acclaimed animated do-gooders.