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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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1 posted on 10/17/2013 9:54:33 AM PDT by Deadeye Division
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To: Deadeye Division

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


2 posted on 10/17/2013 9:57:14 AM PDT by Baynative (Give me coffee to change the things I can and wine to accept those that I can't.)
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To: Deadeye Division
On the positive side, people put that money in the fountain willingly. It was not taken from them by a tyrannic government.
3 posted on 10/17/2013 9:59:06 AM PDT by ryan71 (The Partisans)
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To: Deadeye Division

It’s an interesting commentary on society today that the papaer just assumes we know that she has a case manager.


4 posted on 10/17/2013 9:59:53 AM PDT by edwinland
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She should take the money donated for her legal fund, go to a garden center and buy her own little fountain. I'd be glad to toss some coins in hers instead of the one the city runs [apparently] for profit.
5 posted on 10/17/2013 10:00:51 AM PDT by Baynative (Give me coffee to change the things I can and wine to accept those that I can't.)
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To: Baynative

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

All your money belong to the government.


6 posted on 10/17/2013 10:01:39 AM PDT by TexasGator
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To: Baynative
How is using the money people have tossed away considered stealing?

"All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state."
-- Benito Mussolini

The government thinks all the money belongs to them, and therefore she stole it.

7 posted on 10/17/2013 10:02:27 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (21st century. I'm not a fan.)
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To: TexasGator

Never understood why people throw money into fountains....Ok, I get throwing them into the Trevi Fountain in Rome, but other than that...


8 posted on 10/17/2013 10:03:09 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Baynative

Was wondering the same thing. What’s the difference between loose change in a fountain, on the ground, a parking lot, etc?


9 posted on 10/17/2013 10:03:12 AM PDT by Zack Attack
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To: Deadeye Division
the "four cats" caught my eye....

well, you know, those coins people throw in are basically coins they are throwing away.....we all figure some kids will fish them out eventually,don't we?...

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

10 posted on 10/17/2013 10:03:58 AM PDT by cherry (.in the time of universal deceit, telling the truth is revolutionary.....)
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To: Deadeye Division

In the old days the cop would have given her a couple of bucks instead of a summons.


11 posted on 10/17/2013 10:06:05 AM PDT by TangoLimaSierra (To win the country back, we need to be as mean as the Libs say we are.)
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To: Baynative

Which one will the Government Bless?


12 posted on 10/17/2013 10:06:58 AM PDT by golux
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To: Deadeye Division

Wonder wht the COP didn’t just make her toss the coins back. ///////he could have given her a 5er out of his pocket so she could eat.


13 posted on 10/17/2013 10:07:30 AM PDT by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
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To: TangoLimaSierra

Luckily she didn’t have a dog.


14 posted on 10/17/2013 10:08:11 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Deadeye Division

Perhaps that effort would have been better spent trying to get a job.


15 posted on 10/17/2013 10:09:21 AM PDT by AppyPappy (Obama: What did I not know and when did I not know it?)
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To: Deadeye Division

Don’t steal from the fountain faeries. They’ll sic the cops on you.


16 posted on 10/17/2013 10:09:27 AM PDT by marron
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To: Deadeye Division

Seriously, the cop should be fired. His salary is money wasted.


17 posted on 10/17/2013 10:10:23 AM PDT by marron
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To: TexasGator

Bellefontaine Mayor Gets WIC Assistance (DemocRAT)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2936453/posts


18 posted on 10/17/2013 10:10:25 AM PDT by Deadeye Division
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To: Baynative
"How is using the money people have tossed away considered stealing?"

If you look, many fountains now have signs that tell you the charity the money goes to, or that it becomes the property of the property owner to distribute charitably.

The fountain is technically private property, so whatever's in it belongs to the owner to distribute as he sees fit.

19 posted on 10/17/2013 10:11:24 AM PDT by cincinnati65
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To: Deadeye Division

Hope and Change...............just don’t get caught with the change............


20 posted on 10/17/2013 10:12:41 AM PDT by Red Badger (TANSTAAFL always wins. Always...........................)
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