Posted on 04/23/2012 10:42:54 AM PDT by nickcarraway
A Naples man faces a felony charge after he was accused of walking out of the McDonald’s in East Naples without paying for a cup of soda.
After filling a courtesy cup with soda Thursday at the McDonald’s soda fountain and then leaving the restaurant, Mark Abaire, 52, of the 500 block of 14th Street North, was arrested by Collier deputies and now faces a felony theft charge, a sheriff’s report shows.
A manager told sheriff’s deputies that Abaire entered the store and asked for a glass of water around 10 p.m. Although the employee told him the cup was for water, Abaire filled it with soda at a fountain machine and sat outside the restaurant, according to an arrest report.
During a conversation with the manager, Abaire declined to pay for the soda, valued at $1, refused to leave the premises, and cursed at the manager, the report stated.
While his charge is petty theft, because of previous petty theft convictions, the charge for drinking the unpaid-for soda was increased from a misdemeanor to a felony, the arrest report shows. In Florida, a third-degree felony can result in a sentence of up to 5 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Abaire faces additional misdemeanor counts of trespassing and disorderly intoxication. On Saturday, he remained in the Collier County jail with bond set at $6,500.
Is this for real?
From the headline, it sounds outrageous!
But once you know “the rest of the story”, felony charge and 5 years for a serial petty criminal PITA sounds like a good plan.
So, two petty thefts is one felony?
That sounds to me to be rather... petty.
I,ve seen them do this at McDonalds and Panera and other places that employ teenagers, and in fact one man not only helped himself to coffee with his own cup, he stole a newspaper on the way out!
They don’t have capital punishment in that state? Must be a “whitey” who got arrested,’cuz “protected classes” don’t get arrested.
Now he’ll get “3 hots and a cot.”
Enviro-commies took over Naples years ago.
Naples is sooooo deep into the “Twilight Zone” that the developers are paying for Reid Noss to come to town.
i live here. oh Lord its definetely for real. i wouldnt doubt if over half of polk county has been in criminal court at least once.
too much booze and now has dead cells in head
Heh. Probably shouldn’t give out free cups if you’re that sensitive about your fountain drinks. Courtesy cup; courtesy Coke.
How retarded.
SnakeDoc
In Fl. A theft is a felony over $300 or is a third or subsequent conviction. Makes sense when people continue to incur petit thefts. Same as Dui’s and dwlsr’s in Fl.
It's a little known fact that there are no minorities in prison in the US.
...and some red-water if his new friends share.
Don’t I know, used to live in Bartow, county seat. Got pretty bad, need the revenue, I guess. Used to be a pretty nice place to live.
The boy don’t sound too bright.
They kidnapped one of the drivers and forced her to let them in the door. Since the driver had no access to the counting room except a mailslot-sized deposit drawer, they couldn't get to the cash. They stole the warehouse forklift and crashed it into the armored door, but it wouldn't make a dent. They decided they'd bash in the wall from the outside, but got the forklift stuck in the yard.
Utterly defeated, they stole the only thing they could get their hands on - a few cases of Twinkies.
They weren't caught, but I've had this scene running in my head ever since: New convict, first day in the yard, and someone asks "So, what are you in for?"
Clarification: Bartow’s still nice place, talking about polk county.
Somehow I knew there had to be booze involved in something like this -- there usually is.
A few years ago there was a pizza slice theft that was the 3rd strike and the guy got a major stay in prison.
What people don’t realize is that the 3rd strike can be very minor, relative to the first two. If all three were minor like this, then that’s another story.
The trial of ex-vice pres. candidate John Edwards started today here in NC.
The charges carry a potential total of 60 yrs. prison.
I'm taking bets as to whether this soft drink thief or Edwards spending more time in jail.
I'm betting the soft drink thief.
Sorry, Bubba Ho-Tep, what I should have said was, "Must be a “whitey” who got arrested,’cuz “protected classes” don’t get arrested since Holder becamse AG.
Ah, then I’ll correct my statement to say “It’s a little known fact that no minorities have been arrested in the last three and a half years.”
MMMM toilet sangria....pairs nicely with the bologna sandwich! LOL....
Years ago, I had the pleaure of cleaning up after a couple of thieves who hit a HQ for my company.
They had a shopping list of stuff. Mostly high-end electronics, though they did rifle safes and so on. They also cleaned out everything in the vending machine, except....
They left the packs of powdered mini-donuts. For the cops, I'd assume.
I hated them for the mess that they made, but tipped my cap on that particular one.
They were later caught, as they (or the people who they fenced the computers to) called in to the manufacturer for support. Good riddance.
I wouldn’t doubt it,either. And I’m in Hernando County.
Penal colony on a deserted island. Staff it with 3rd world guards and pay them OUR minimum wage.
Fingerprints on the powdered donuts?
I lived in Naples before that Mickee D was built. I remember when it opened , you would have thought it was a large department store the way they carried on the day of the grand opening. It was something, the closest McDonalds was in Ft. Myers
You committed burglary. What I meant was that this is a very strange story that I couldn’t help but wonder if it was for real.
He does deserve to be punished. No doubt about that.
As I recall the victims were children at a table in a pizza parlor. The libs were in an uproar over how unfair the three strikes law was to send a man back to prison for life for robbing children of a piece of pizza.
My own opinion is that such bullies are committing crimes practically every single day. We know that most crimes go unsolved. The majority of those crimes are undoubtedly committed by the career criminals that we do know.
Before the program was shut down, San Francisco was running a sting which consisted of planting helpless people in public places and have some money showing. They picked up the same guy twice in nine months. Imagine how many thefts this guy committed during that nine month interval. I would bet at least one per day, or almost THREE HUNDRED.
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