Pregnant mom says sandwich arrest was 'horrifying'

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   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   "HONOLULU (AP) � Nicole Leszczynski couldn't imagine that two chicken salad sandwiches would land her and her husband in jail and her 2-year-old daughter in state custody. But it happened five days ago, when the 30-weeks-pregnant woman forgot to pay for her snack while grocery shopping.
   
   "It was the most ridiculous chain of events that happened," she said while sobbing Monday. "It's still hard to believe what happened.""
   
   http://news.yahoo.com/pregnant-mom-says … 07004.html

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      habeeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      OMG! Gee, I feel so much safer knowing that those sandwich-nibbling criminals were taken care of! The stupidity of our "justice system" never ceases to amaze me.

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         paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         The fact of the $50 bail indicates to me that there were no priors, so I do believe the couple. At worst, the cops should have just given them a court-appearance ticket. However, I think that Safeway is the real culprit here. Safeway should have just said, “What about the sandwiches?” At which point all would have been taken care of. Instead, Safeway not only had them arrested, but banned them for a year from the store.
         
         Shoplifters are true slime that we all have to pay for every time we buy something, but forgetfulness happens as well. And I believe that any competent security person can tell the difference. In my opinion, Safeway acted in bad faith.

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            habeeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            True. I'm glad we don't have a Safeway around here. I believe the couple, too. Last year, I bought a bunch of stuff at Walmart one day, including an anklet. When I got home, I found the chain wrapped around the handle of my purse. I checked my receipt, and I hadn't been charged for the anklet. You wouldn't believe how hard it was for me to go back to the store and pay for the darn thing! It was like they'd never dealt with honest people before, and no one was sure exactly how to handle it.

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               Paul Wingertposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               It's point obvious that they weren't intentionaly shoplifting and it was a mistake. They did pay for their purchase, $50 worth of groceries and two sandwich wrappers would be pretty easy to overlook. Safeway was totally out of line on this one and if I was that couple I go after them and the police department.

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      Disturbiaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I can't believe that no one along the way questioned the total and complete stupidity of this entire episode.  This makes the security guards, the Safeway store manager, and the local police all look like a bunch of mindless, abusive, drons with limited intelligence who couldn't understand that this was a simple mistake.  Does anyone seriously believe the store manaager did not have the discretionary power to have let the couple pay the $5.00 and be on their way?  This isn't the first story I've heard where some simple situation has turned into a complete fiasco because someone incharge blindly followed a policy without the application of any common sense what so ever. We all understand that laws and policies are there to protect us, but please, there needs to be some common sense applied also, or we are all in danger of being victims of the very rules set down for our protection.

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   Stacie Lposted 12 years ago

   It was extreme for the store to have them arrested..that being said,I'll bet this happened all the time in this store and the manager had to make an example of them.

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      Paul Wingertposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      They paid for their purchase ($50 in grocories) but overlooked a sandwhich wrapper. It would be like having a cart full of groceries and one small item gets unoticed in the corner of your cart and doesn't get paid for. You load of the cart with your purchased items and then you are stopped at the door and charged with shoplifting. It's not like you went through the isles and stuffed your jacket with items and when through checkout to pay for a candy bar.

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         habeeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Exactly!

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   Emile Rposted 12 years ago

   I don't have a lot of sympathy. This is not an isolated incident. People do it all of the time and don't feel compelled to pay. She should have gone to the register, paid for the sandwiches, and then eaten them while shopping. It would have helped her avoid the embarassment of being caught.

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   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   We've got:
   
   3 for the parents,
   
   2 for the store,
   
   so far.
   
   

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      Home Girlposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I think they both(store and parents) are morons.  If you are hungry buy food, sit and eat and then go shopping. it's so easy to forget  something if you are distracted and in a grocery store - plenty of it! I recently bought 6 cans of cat food, paid for that together with some other food at a local store, grabbed everything (I thought), rushed home and only at home realized that I left my cat food, all six cans at the counter. Why? I don't know - got distracted with something, wanted to go home after work asap, I don't know. I was angry at myself, and too tired to go back and to buy another. I just let it go. So should the store. The accident was not that big. 5 bucks, no big deal. They could say something, could charge that people more for 'forgetfulness', could ban them from the store, but to arrest? Imagine how much money, I mean, state money had been spent on that misdemeanor? How much stress for that poor woman and her child?  It smells like something from some Eastern regime, not a democratic country. Stupid and pointless waste of time,energy and money.

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         Paul Wingertposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I've been in retail and worked for Safeway (lasted a month because I hated it) and it's a very common practice for the customer to put on and wear the article of clothing or consume the food article and save the wrapper or tag to be purched at check out.

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            John Holdenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I knew a woman many years ago with a couple of kids who thought it was fair game to take them to the supermarket and stuff their faces in store.
            She would just not accept that it was theft.

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               Paul Wingertposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Yes you have those too, I agree. There's so many variables and we can discuss this into next week. This is where common sense has to fill in the grey area of store policies and the law. My grandma used to sample the grapes and other small produce at her local grocerie store. But if I was a manager and saw some sampling, and there's no posted signs against it, and then saw the customer purchase $50+ worth of stuff, I'd let it slide.

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                  John Holdenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  That's all very well Paul but $5 is 10% of $50 and probably more than the profit they are making on that $50.
                  
                  I think the grape point is misleading as there will be a loss built into the price of the grapes.

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                  Emile Rposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  You may not understand the low profit margin in the retail grocery business. It's about 4%. That doesn't give a lot of room for turning a bind eye to sampling.
                  
                  I worked in a store when I was younger. We didn't have people arrested, but if you were seen sampling, you got charged. We just didn't tell you. If you handed us a banana peel at the register, you got charged for a pound.
                  
                  It isn't that difficult to pay for something before consuming it. I doubt the Safeway will suffer any repercussions due to bad press.

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                     John Holdenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     And you have to ask yourself, how many people who can afford to spend $50 on a food shop are so hungry that they have to eat NOW and can't wait five or ten minutes until they've paid for the food that they are eating?

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                        Emile Rposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        None probably. And the whole thing is suspicious. If they had meant to pay, the wrappers would have been in a visible location; so they could be set on the register at checkout. They won't get far with that defense in court.

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                           John Holdenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                           I had a sudden flash of an irate mother screaming at her small child clutching a half eaten sandwich to put it back immediately!
                           
                           I'm sorry but I can't join in this righteous indignation for the poor people who just happened to eat sandwiches in the shop and just happened to forget to pay for them. After all, ultimately it won't be the store that carries the loss, it will be the other, more honest, customers.

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                              Emile Rposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                              Exactly. And the store management is not unaware of how these things play out in the court of public opinion. They also know how difficult it is to get a conviction in a court of law. They rarely stop anyone, unless absolutely certain of what has happened.

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   psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

   I think the store over-stepped the mark.  She paid for the groceries, forgot one item.  A zero tolerance approach makes no sense in this situation.

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      habeeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Agreed!

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   Paul Wingertposted 12 years ago

   We all know that Safeway will loose big in the end. This $5 incident with cost them plenty in bad press, customer boycotts, and possible lawsuit(s). Big question to the management of Safeway, was it really worth it?

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      John Holdenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Do you really think so?
      
      I suspect the few who have heard about it will have forgotten again in five minutes, or when next they go to Safeways.

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         Paul Wingertposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         It really depends on how far the couple will push it and how bored the media is unless Kim K gets married and divorced within the next 72 hours.

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   habeeposted 12 years ago

   When I'm buying grapes, I always eat one. Why? Because half the time the "seedless" grapes aren't seedless, even though they're labeled as such.

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   Bredaviesposted 12 years ago

   I just read that story today. It was ridiculous. I am glad the police are worried about sandwich "stealers"

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   Stacie Lposted 12 years ago

   I can't help wondering if this is a normal habit for the arrested couple.Do they normally eat food and "forget" to pay?
   maybe so ;then they learned a valuable lesson.

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      Emile Rposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I personally think it's highly likely that you've hit the nail on the head. It's normal behavior for a shop lifter to claim they simply forgot to pay.

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      Disturbiaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      My daughter eats and drinks things while shopping all the time, but we never forget to give the empty containers to the cashier.  In fact, we make a point of putting those things on the counter first.

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    SpanStarposted 12 years ago

    From my view we are not people anymore but statistics.  We treat people like we're one of them but by policy.  If subject does A,B,C then you do E,F,G.  Trust doesn't factor into it because trust isn't require when dealing with statistics.

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    Paul Wingertposted 12 years ago

    The latest story is that Safeway will not press charges and their spokesperson called the couple and offfered a sort of appology and they will update their training and policies.

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       habeeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Good! Thanks for the update.

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