Give me a break!!!
> OMG!!! Senior citizen mooches $200 from poor, unsuspecting scrap dealers...
A more careful reading of the story would have told you that was convicted of a misdemeanor for obtaining “more than $200” — which probably would have taken the offense from a petty trivial matter to something of a more serious nature deserving of the court’s attention.
This was probably merely the latest in a long litany of misdeeds. People don’t “suddenly” become dishonest. At 73 yrs old he has certainly been around long enough to know right from wrong.
I have no difficulty at all with the courts taking a very dim view on every single misdeed, however small. If Society tolerates a certain level of “rot” as being acceptable, it is a matter of time before the rot spreads.