Posted on 04/09/2008 12:05:10 AM PDT by seacapn
BROOKLYN, Ohio -- Have you ever put a case of water or something heavy under your shopping cart and then forgotten about it?
A Cleveland man did, and it landed him in jail, television station WEWS reported.
Tom Sturgis has a long receipt showing the $157.20 worth of two grocery carts full of groceries that he bought at a Brooklyn supermarket Saturday night. After going through the self checkout, Sturgis said he forgot a $4 case of pop under the cart.
(Excerpt) Read more at whiotv.com ...
Oh, yeah. Got us a real, live Dick Tracy, right here.
The man was still on store property and they charged him with theft?
Zero tolerance policy adherent!
Just to get this out of the way before the Law & Order Freepers arrive.
“Lock him up, throw away the key. “
“Good thing our LEO Heroes got this Thug off the Streets”
“Today he tried to steal a case of coke but tomorrow he will be dealing kilos of coke to kids in elementary school.”
“The Death Penalty would be to good for this guy. I was we draw and quarter him with four Pepsi Trucks running on high octane Ohio Ethanol.”
What the story doesn’t say is did he go through a regular checkout line with a cashier or did he go through on of those lemme-stand-here-and get-the-crap-confused-out-of-myself self checkout abominations?
If he went through a regular line, it’s their responsibility to make sure everything was accounted for. Her cryin out loud, it’s not like he had a case of soda stuffed into his coat pocket.
If he went through the do it yourself line, they MIGHT... MIGHT be able to make a case that it was intentional.
The man didn’t pay for the soda. You know it isn’t like a bank robber can get caught and say, “sorry, I will return the money”. It isn’t like he is an illegal invader and can be merely sent back (if we are lucky) to try again.
Crossing our borders illegally is illegal. Forgetting to pay for a case of pop is illegal. So can someone explain to me again why the guy couldn’t just give the soda back and try again tomorrow?
We now live in a society where no one in authority uses their brain and makes a judgement based on the circumstances. Instead it is “zero tolerance” where a computer might as well dish out justice...
If this happened to me, I’d take out a full page ad in the local paper stating what happened and ask people if they want to shop at a place that operates its business that way. I’d make em pay...
If the guy was doing the shoping, he may have been thinking about other erands or perhaps some tasks he needed to do at home. It is possible he forgot. How do they know what the intent was?
As other posters stated, where was the box boy or checker here? The idiotic guard should arrest them too, as accomplices. Let’s throw them all in prison Barney Fife.
Oh that’s right, he only had one bullet, couldn’t confront the whole gang.
Sorry, not taking some guy into custody over some soda. Cite the guy if you must, but seriously folks. Cheeze Whiz!
I would have given this guy the benefit of the doubt and allowed him to go back in and pay for the pop. I myself avoid that problem by going through the regular checkout when I have something heavy on the bottom of the my cart. That way, the cashier can use the hand scanner and I don’t have to lift the item up onto the counter. Every once in a while, being a weakling has its advantages!
The story continuation states that it was a self check-out. With two carts full of stuff, he must have been half crazed by the time he finished. Easy to miss the soda underneath.
No doubt. They think all LEOs are saints, even when they act criminally and in violation of the Constitution.
And what is 'pop' anyway?
After going through the self checkout, Sturgis said he forgot a $4 case of pop under the cart.
Ohio’s problem evidently, is they don’t have enough real crimes...
Sheesh, around here you almost need to do a drive-by before cops even look at you.
...was a complete basket case!
Who goes through a grocery self-checkout with TWO CARTS? This guy is a masochist! He should sue for emotional distress. And how about this: the store has this auto-checkout line so they hire one less cashier, but somebody's got enough time on his hands to observe and bust a distracted, multi-tasking shopper who uses that checkerless nightmare of a system. Are these things the grocery store equivalent to a highway speed trap? Is there a shoplifter quota to fill?
If someone breaks into my car at my house the cops will not come. I have to go downtown and fill out a report but they will send 5 cop cars at a time to a bar to see if anyone is smoking a cigarette.
“FORGETTING” to pay for the case of pop is not illegal. The crime of larceny requires the specific intent to steal. If he intended to steal the coke and was just pretending to have “missed it”, that’s a different matter.
I tend to believe him, just last week, I forgot I had a case of pepsi in the bottom of my cart, after I had paid for it. I left it in the cart when I drove off and someone got a free case of diet pepsi (AKA nectar of the gods)
I’m amazed they haven’t shown up already, whining that thwe cops are “just doing their jobs”.
I went to the link, and didn't see where they mentioned the name of the store.
The cop was working as a security guard for this store. They may well get some unwanted publicity, now that the story has gotten loose on the net.
“And what is ‘pop’ anyway?”
Its coke
Meanwhile bands of hate-filled death cult members are meeting and planning to convert this country to their cult; criminals are breaking into homes and terrorizing residents; innocent people are attacked at ATM’s and their money stolen.
The right thing to do would have been to stop him and remind him to pay for the soda.
Does the ‘victim’, the store, have a name? Gee, I wonder why it isn’t in the article? I am sure they will lost more than $4 worth of business on this one.
I don’t like to put stuff on the bottom of carts for this very reason. In my imagination I have jokingly pictured myself marched off in cuffs for forgetting the stuff down there. Now I find it’s not a joke.
The store is the Giant Eagle in Brooklyn, Ohio. Let’s send them a little love, eh?
One of the two most widely used generic terms in the US for this type of product, with the other being "soda." Which term is used is very regionally specific.
Here's a neat map showing distribution of usage by county.
http://popvssoda.com:2998/countystats/total-county.html
I believe him too. If the man wasn’t trying to hide or conceal the soda, this is just silly. A man spends that much with your store and you have him arrested for a $4 case of pop? Forgetting to pay isn’t illegal, but if the man made an honest mistake, it certainly is punishable.
Line #4 in the excerpt above.
Here's a neat map showing distribution of usage by county.
Judging from that map, VA and NC can't decide what to call it. LOL.
I definitely would not shop at this store if this is how they treat a customer who just spent $125 there. Talk about bad PR!
A lawyer should be able to get this tossed of court out on that basis.
I forgot a bag of dog food on the bottom of my cart, the checkout lady didn’t see it, I got out to my car and saw it, remembered, went back in and paid.
Sure glad I didn’t get arrested.
It's tonic.
Sorry, I thought I'd throw in another word for "coke" which is the all-emcompassing name of all soft drinks...
I hope this isn’t his third strike.
When I went back in to pay for it, they looked at me like I had two damn heads. No threats or accusations of theft, but absolute puzzlement at honesty.
In Houston, it’s all “coke”, no matter what brand or flavor.
According to the map, Californians call it soda. I grew up there and always referred to it as “soda pop” but never “soda”. Is that still the case? Can anyone in CA verify?
Now I’m in KY and everyone just calls it coke, even it they’re drinking Pepsi. I don’t get it.
What a fabulous map. My wife grew up calling it pop and my family has been soda people for generations. Well, okay maybe for the past 100 years or so since they were in Europe before that, but this controversy has raged in our family for years.
Growing up in SC/GA the question was always, "What kind of Co-Cola you want?"
Answer could range from Nehi Grape Co-Cola to RC Co-Cola, to Pepsi Co-Cola, to 7-Up Co-Cola.
Seems to me that stealing is stealing. Utilizing the self checkout facilities does not mean one is entitled to skim off the top by not ringing things up. Maybe this store and guard had an eye on him from previous behavior. Why everyone here thinks it is okay to steal 4 dollars is beyond me. If you have a “net” profit of 5 percent for example, how many sales must be made to make up for this skimmer of 4 dollars? How many more sodas must be sold to honest forthright good paying customers to make up for it. I don’t give a hoot if someone just bought 157 of this or that - they are still not entitled to take my inventory out of the store for free.
We don’t know the history here, we don’t know if he has been caught shoplifting 15 times in the past year. I am sick of the police running around as mere additional tax revenue collectors and not enforcing the laws. I agree that you just can’t go stealing stuff (like the quotes in the story), and then when caught say “oopps, I will go return it or pay for it” and expect everything to be okay. Bout time this types of crimes that happen every day start getting attention. These thefts hurt everyone and drives costs up.
I hate thieves. Like white lies, these little white thefts where people think it doesn’t hurt anyone are just as wrong as someone taking four dollars out of your wallet without asking. It is a crime and they do hurt businesses.
That does stump a lot of people. Try turning in a wallet that you find with cash in it.
This cop will lose his job AFTER the civil suit empties the city’s treasury.
LLS
So if you’re going to take the approach that the guy stole the merchandise, but you’re against the police “running around as mere additional tax revenue collectors and not enforcing the laws,” then what should have happened, other than the guy noticing the soda/pop/tonic/Coke/sodee and paying for it?
Two carts through the self-check lane? Wow. In all of the grocery stores I shop at, there is a limit on the number of items you can self-check - like the Fast lane. Maybe the guy waiting behind him was the one who turned him in!
Great! Now this guy has an arrest record over a case of soda that he missed in one of those stupid self-checkout lines. Stupid, stupid cop and store management!
I wouldn’t hire you for any position requiring one iota of judgment.
Sturgis said he forgot a $4 case of pop under the cart.
Sure, sure. 'He Forgot'.
Yeah we've all heard this before but that's how it starts. First a $4.00 case of pop, then its a CD, then an iPhone, then sticking up Grocery Stores and finally pulling Jewelry Store heists for millions in diamonds and shooting cops.
Yes, many a Death Row inmate's last words to the priest were,
'But Father, it all stated with a $4.00 case of pop.'
;-)
You don’t know jack about this case and if officers aren’t going to enforce the petty theft crimes and the vandalism, and the shoplifters then why call them.
Some of you ain’t real bright. People use these self checkout lines to steal all the time. A case of soda here, a pack of batteries there, a bottle of tums, etc... And many of you are like “that is okay” ??????? - and if you catch them they are free to go if they just pay for it now or return it????
And this police officer was working security so it is a tad different. I call the police here about shoplifting, vandalism and alike and I get the “we can file a report” so why bother. They are out writing tickets to generate revenue. It is great when I see someone getting arrested for this shyte though. It puzzles me that there are so many that condone this type of theft. Many of you ‘stealing is okay’ crowd assume from the way it is written that this poor lost soul just happened to forget it and not pay for it. I have heard that a million times. “not sure how that got into my pocket”, “I meant to pay for it”, “I forget about that”, “I thought you rung me up for that item in my coat” etc etc etc etc. He got caught. Busted. And the cop didn’t fall for his BS like so many of you...
First of all, I won’t use a self-check out system simply because the stores offer no discount for using it. I feel that anyone that abuses himself by using the self-checkout deserves a discount, especially since it reduces the store’s labor cost at the customer’s expense. Second of all, they’re too confusing and often malfunctioning.
Nonetheless, I also suspect that occasionally I get something I didn’t pay for even with a human checker. Thank God I didn’t do that at the Giant Eagle in Brooklyn, OH.
Sounds like the good citizens of Brooklyn, OH should give the Giant Eagle the bird and shop elsewhere.
On the other side of the coin, I catch my local markets overcharging me about once a month due to checker error, or scaned prices being different than the posted price. Sounds to me like the Giant Eagle would deserve a swat team raid by the Brooklyn, OH police if they overcharge a customer just to keep the enforcement fair for both the customers and the market.
“And what is ‘pop’ anyway?”
“Pop” is what you add to ice cream to get soda.
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