Noteworthy News

[TaraJo]

Man charged with felony, jailed on $50k cash bond for 43-cent ‘theft’

Joseph Sobolewski stopped at a convenience store in Perry County last month where he saw a sign for 20-ounce Mountain Dew bottles: 2 for $3.

He grabbed a bottle, slapped $2 on the counter and walked out.

What he didn’t know was a single bottle was $2.29, not $1.50. So he had shorted the store 29 cents plus tax, or 43 cents total.

The store called police, who tracked him down. Pennsylvania State police officers charged him with a felony, locked him up on $50,000 cash-only bond. He’s facing the possibility of up to seven years in prison.

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2021/09/ma...theft.html

This might be the most disturbing thing from that article:

Third and subsequent offenses, no matter the amount, are all graded as a third-degree felonies, which is the same charge for items valued at more than $1,000. Other crimes that count as a third-degree felony are involuntary manslaughter, institutional sexual assault and carrying a firearm without a license.

So, not paying 43c is legally the equivalent of involuntary manslaughter. That is, in judicial parlance, epically fucked up.

Boru

And yet cops able to needlessly kill people over and over again and get away with it without spending a minute behind bars