25 replies to this topic

[Stunnerrunner]

http://news.yahoo.co...-214407004.html

They forgot to pay for a $5 sandwhich, and when they realized their mistake and offered to pay for it, they were arrested and their 2 year old daughter was taken away from them. After 18 hours, Zofia was returned, and the couple was charged with fourth-degree theft and a petty misdemeanor.

What a up world.

[Musician]

Oh wow.

Some of these policies are just...

ridiculous.

[ShinaDutchAD]

That's honestly messed up.

I was going to say something witty...but I'm just too dumbfounded

Edited by KRG, 01 November 2011 - 09:25 AM.

[Abradix]

Any parent that names their child Zofia needs to be sterilized anyways. I'm glad the police took it upon themselves to denigrate these dastardly stolen sandwich kingpins... The world is so much safer now!

[iargue]

How can you even press charges for five dollars? The cost of court fees and other things will certainly outweigh the amount of money which they can gain from pressing charges. Most stores have a limit of the amount that the press charges for, for instance, walmart is 50 dollars (They might have changed to 25 dollars).

Denying them the right to pay for the stolen items and leave is beyond stupid as well.

[Nymh]

The family hasn't decided whether it will pursue legal action against Safeway.

I think they should! That is terrible. They were told they weren't allowed to pay for items that left the store. Technically the sandwich never left the store. It was still in her belly when they got stopped by the security guard on their way out.


I couldn't imagine being confined to a room for 4 hours with my 2 year old child. What a nightmare that would be!

And seriously, they just spent $50 on groceries, why would they "steal" two sandwiches on purpose? So stupid.

[Stunnerrunner]

I think they should! That is terrible. They were told they weren't allowed to pay for items that left the store. Technically the sandwich never left the store. It was still in her belly when they got stopped by the security guard on their way out.

I couldn't imagine being confined to a room for 4 hours with my 2 year old child. What a nightmare that would be!

And seriously, they just spent $50 on groceries, why would they "steal" two sandwiches on purpose? So stupid.

Exactly, honest people don't normally just drop $50 for groceries and then try to steal a $5 sandwhich... Thank God I don't live near a Safeway, wouldn't be shopping there if I did.

[Thepeopleschampion]

wow that makes me wanna bath in a bathtub of Acid and dive into a pool of Burning chainsaws from hell...im that pissed off

[Frizzle]

Don't commit the crime, if you can't do the time.

[luvsmyncis]

Consuming a food product before you've paid for it is wrong, no matter what your intention is. They should have bought it before they opened it. I do think the punishment is excessive, but I don't feel sorry for them. Stealing is stealing, even if it's an accident.

[onethreezerotwo]

Utter bullshit.

[Rainie]

o__o Seriously?
That is so messed up, they offered to pay back the money and get arrested? For a stupid $5?
Stupid >n< ~~

[Sage]

Who the hell -arrests- someone for petty theft? Did these people have a record or something? I could've sworn thefts of less than a certain amount (and five bucks is definitely under pretty much every minimum I've ever heard of) were handled with citations and a court date, not an arrest and bail. Is Honolulu just super low-tolerance or what?

Offering to pay for what was "stolen" and being refused because the items left the store is a moronic response, too. Policy or not, it would have saved that store and that company a lot of time and aggravation to just stop at getting their five bucks and issuing a ban if they still felt a ban was necessary.

Stealing is stealing, even if it's an accident.

In the eyes of the law I'm fairly certain a theft charge requires proof of intent. As far as personal feelings go, I don't agree with you at all; forgetting to pay isn't the same as stealing, it's a simple mistake.

[pkdust]

wow the fact that they offered to pay. daaaamn

[luvsmyncis]

As far as personal feelings go, I don't agree with you at all; forgetting to pay isn't the same as stealing, it's a simple mistake.

Imagine if you will, a cute harmless little old lady picks out her favorite Revlon lipstick priced at $9.99. She puts it in the top of her purse, because it will fall out of the rolling basket she has. She spends a half an hour picking out a Hallmark card. When she gets to the register, she pays for the card but forgets about the lipstick, which falls to the bottom of her purse when she gets her wallet out. Then she leaves. Your personal feelings say she didn't steal the lipstick. What do you call it then?

I said I thought the punishment was excessive, and the article states that they never meant for the child to be taken away. But when you consume something without paying for it, it's theft. What if their credit card didn't go through for everything? They already ate the sandwiches. How do you handle this simple mistake?

If something like this happened where I worked, we'd have just made them pay for the sandwiches and asked them not to come back. Honest mistakes happen, but every little stolen item from a store adds up, and ends up costing the store in loss and labor to replace the loss. Then the prices go up. Yadda yadda. Moral of the story: Don't steal. It sucks they had to go through this shitty ordeal. But don't fucking eat something you haven't paid for.

[PetPetKilla]

Wow, what hardcore criminals ehh.

[James]

Sandwiches, curbs, what's next? Air? D:

[Tech]

If this is for reals then wow.....some times the law is screwed up to the point where it is ridiculous

[onethreezerotwo]

Imagine if you will, a cute harmless little old lady picks out her favorite Revlon lipstick priced at $9.99. She puts it in the top of her purse, because it will fall out of the rolling basket she has. She spends a half an hour picking out a Hallmark card. When she gets to the register, she pays for the card but forgets about the lipstick, which falls to the bottom of her purse when she gets her wallet out. Then she leaves. Your personal feelings say she didn't steal the lipstick. What do you call it then?

I said I thought the punishment was excessive, and the article states that they never meant for the child to be taken away. But when you consume something without paying for it, it's theft. What if their credit card didn't go through for everything? They already ate the sandwiches. How do you handle this simple mistake?

If something like this happened where I worked, we'd have just made them pay for the sandwiches and asked them not to come back. Honest mistakes happen, but every little stolen item from a store adds up, and ends up costing the store in loss and labor to replace the loss. Then the prices go up. Yadda yadda. Moral of the story: Don't steal. It sucks they had to go through this shitty ordeal. But don't fucking eat something you haven't paid for.

I wouldn't call it theft unless (a) she realizes she forgot to pay for it and doesn't go back to rectify her mistake or (b)they confront her about it and she tries to deny it. It's a mistake, and the harm to the persecuting entity (ESPECIALLY for a company as big as Safeway) is negligible. Grocery stores and stores that sell perishable food throw hundreds of dollars of food away every night.

[Sage]

I wouldn't call it theft unless (a) she realizes she forgot to pay for it and doesn't go back to rectify her mistake or (b)they confront her about it and she tries to deny it. It's a mistake, and the harm to the persecuting entity (ESPECIALLY for a company as big as Safeway) is negligible. Grocery stores and stores that sell perishable food throw hundreds of dollars of food away every night.

This is basically my entire answer. Work slows me down. >:|

[luvsmyncis]

I wouldn't call it theft unless (a) she realizes she forgot to pay for it and doesn't go back to rectify her mistake or (b)they confront her about it and she tries to deny it. It's a mistake, and the harm to the persecuting entity (ESPECIALLY for a company as big as Safeway) is negligible. Grocery stores and stores that sell perishable food throw hundreds of dollars of food away every night.

What if she forgot about it completely and never returns to pay for it? Suppose that couple might have just forgotten it forever if they hadn't been caught. It is still stealing.
And that last sentence is ridiculous. Just because food goes bad doesn't give people the right to take whatever they want.

[Moss]

I think that was way too harsh if anything they could have just charged one of the parents. That way someone does get held responsible and their child isn't separated from both the parents.

[Pavement]

I woulda just taken the free sandwich and left.

[willy101]

Any parent that names their child Zofia needs to be sterilized anyways. I'm glad the police took it upon themselves to denigrate these dastardly stolen sandwich kingpins... The world is so much safer now!

that still not as bad as these parents

http://www.nydailyne...rticle-1.968340

[ilovepolkadots]

Consuming a food product before you've paid for it is wrong, no matter what your intention is. They should have bought it before they opened it. I do think the punishment is excessive, but I don't feel sorry for them. Stealing is stealing, even if it's an accident.

at Trader Joes we encourage customers to eat their products if they intend to buy them
in fact if anyone wants to taste something they just have to find an employee and we open it up for them


i think it is insane what this grocery store did


in a later article it does say that the store is not pressing charges on the couple
which is best for their publicity i am sure

that still not as bad as these parents

http://www.nydailyne...rticle-1.968340

as a side note this article was hilarious

my favorite part::

The family first gained media attention when the Campbells ordered a birthday cake at a local ShopRite. The supermarket refused to bake the cake because the family wanted it to say "Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler."

A local WalMart ultimately provided the cake for the child's party.