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Unemployed Ohio woman charged for taking $2.87 from fountain to buy food
New York Daily News ^ | Thursday, October 17, 2013 | Joe Kemp

Posted on 10/17/2013 9:54:33 AM PDT by Deadeye Division

Deidre Romine said she’s unemployed and about to lose her apartment. She said she took the change from the fountain to buy food.

She only wished to buy a meal.

An Ohio woman was collared for petty theft after she was caught swiping $2.87 in change from a fountain last week.

Deidre Romine said she had just fished the coins out of the Logan County Courthouse fountain in Bellefontaine to buy food when a cop approached her on Oct. 7.

“The cop asked me what I was doing and I was afraid to tell him,” Romine told WBNS-10TV. “The money didn’t belong to anybody, so I just took it out of there.”

After the officer found the stolen change in her pocket, he issued her a summons to appear in court on a petty theft charge.

The unemployed woman said she’s been struggling to make ends meet and about to lose her apartment and now she’s worried that she’ll get locked up.

“I’m trying to feed myself and I’ve got four cats I’m raising and trying to feed them,” she said. “I might go to jail.”

But one man launched an online donation drive to help Romine fight her case.

“We want the community to know the why rather than just the headline that she got arrested, and we also want to help her out,” said the supporter, Will Zell.

Several people have already contributed to the online fund, which has raised nearly $2,000 — ten times the initial goal — by Thursday.

Zell said the money will go directly to Romine’s case manager.

jkemp@nydailynews.com


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Ohio
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To: SandRat

He could have given her a donut.................


21 posted on 10/17/2013 10:14:12 AM PDT by Red Badger (TANSTAAFL always wins. Always...........................)
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To: AppyPappy

“The money could have been used for the poor”

“The poor you will always have with you.”


22 posted on 10/17/2013 10:14:40 AM PDT by madison10
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To: edwinland
just assumes we know that she has a case manager.

What is a case manager, a parole officer?

23 posted on 10/17/2013 10:14:46 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Ms. Muffett suffered from arachnophobia)
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To: Deadeye Division

Silly woman —she should instead have smuggled machine guns to narco kingpins. She would have gotten off scott-free.

Or perhaps she should have razed a US Embassy.

She was reckless.


24 posted on 10/17/2013 10:15:27 AM PDT by gaijin
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To: Baynative

How is using the money people have tossed away considered stealing?

I don’t think she should have been cited, and probably wouldn’t have if she told the officer the truth, well maybe. Usually the money in fountains is collected and sometimes goes to charity or fountain maintenance and sometimes just into the city coffers. So is it stealing? maybe, but around where I live they never hassle anyone for stealing from our recycle bins on the street and that is supposed to offset our fees.


25 posted on 10/17/2013 10:16:26 AM PDT by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: cherry
"the "four cats" caught my eye...."

26 posted on 10/17/2013 10:16:57 AM PDT by outofsalt ("If History teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything")
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To: AppyPappy

“The money could have been used for the poor” —Judas

“The poor you will always have with you.” —Jesus

How do YOU know she hadn’t tried for a job and was rejected 100s of times?


27 posted on 10/17/2013 10:18:15 AM PDT by madison10
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To: Deadeye Division

She should have said she needs it for the ObamaCare healthscare exchange plan signup. Free pass indeed.


28 posted on 10/17/2013 10:20:42 AM PDT by tflabo (Truth or Tyranny)
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To: Deadeye Division
But if you run up a $700 bill at WalMart that you KNOW you're not entitled to, that's not stealing?

If you come into this country illegally and steal this woman's job, that's not stealing?

If you take multi-million dollar vacations at taxpayer expense, but pretend like there isn't enough money to let the veterans that saved the entire world from the NAZIs visit their own memorial, that's not stealing?!?!?!?

Something has changed since I was a kid....

29 posted on 10/17/2013 10:21:57 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876
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To: Deadeye Division

Silly girl, she should go to walmart with an EBT card.


30 posted on 10/17/2013 10:23:58 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: TexasGator
*“How is using the money people have tossed away considered stealing?”

All your money belong to the government.*

All your base are belong to us.

“Like, all private property is stealing man!”
~ Dirty smelly hippie advising any Democrat politician who was a teen or college student in the late 1960’s....

31 posted on 10/17/2013 10:24:57 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876
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To: cherry

*cops need to go after the criminal, not the stupid or the petty... *

Yet a dozen illegal invaders line up every day at Home Depot and the cops do nothing.

Occutards illegally camp and the cops do nothing.

A sitting POTUS commits dozens of impeachable offenses and no one in government does anything at all.


32 posted on 10/17/2013 10:27:40 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876
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To: Deadeye Division
If I were a judge I would summons this asshat officer to court.

What a gigantic waste of time and resourses.

Seems more and more like the police just assume everyone but them is a criminal.

A country that promotes killing of the unborn has lost its humanity so I really shouldn't be at all surprized.

33 posted on 10/17/2013 10:28:32 AM PDT by Newbomb Turk ("All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.")
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To: TangoLimaSierra

Indeed.


34 posted on 10/17/2013 10:30:41 AM PDT by Gator113 (Ted Cruz is settled law.)
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To: cincinnati65
The fountain is technically private property, so whatever's in it belongs to the owner to distribute as he sees fit.

The fountain is on public property. I'm willing to bet, nothing larger than a nickel ever makes it to the bank.

In fact I should demand an accounting of the fountains funds !

35 posted on 10/17/2013 10:30:47 AM PDT by Newbomb Turk ("All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.")
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To: TexasGator
"All your money belong to the government."

------------------------------->

'She didn't make that fountain'.....policeman not showing any compassion. He could have given her his pocket change or bought her a burger, etc.

He didn't have to be a jackass.

She sounds pretty destitute. If she has a case worker, she must be a pretty bad one. A good case worker would have worked with her to get the help she needed.

Provided there was a case worker, that would make another jackass.

36 posted on 10/17/2013 10:34:47 AM PDT by hummingbird (Don't be afraid of the big words.)
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To: Mastador1

This fountain hasn’t received this much notoriety since some miscreant put detergent in it years ago.


37 posted on 10/17/2013 10:36:27 AM PDT by Deadeye Division
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To: outofsalt

Go veggie!


38 posted on 10/17/2013 10:37:13 AM PDT by Biggirl (“Go, do not be afraid, and serve”-Pope Francis)
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To: dfwgator
"Never understood why people throw money into fountains"

Kids get a kick throwing a penny in a fountain and making a wish.

I do, too!

39 posted on 10/17/2013 10:38:19 AM PDT by hummingbird (Don't be afraid of the big words.)
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To: Deadeye Division

http://www.gofundme.com/4t4mxg

For the kitties ! So she doesn’t have to find a homeless shelter that allows pets or provides for pets.


40 posted on 10/17/2013 10:39:07 AM PDT by erlayman
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