Makiki couple arrested over $5 sandwich

Tinsamd

Justice for Shaniya!!!!
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I wasn't sure where to put this, but as I just read it, I had to put it somewhere.

This is so ridiculous to me. They took their 3 year old away for 18 hours over a complete mistake in overlooking paying for a sandwich...

http://www.khon2.com/mostpopular/st...d-over-5-sandwich/h-yUAH_SuEOvm_PZfXUcZA.cspx
A couple's three-year-old daughter was taken away from them for 18 hours after being arrested for forgetting to pay for a $5 sandwich while grocery shopping.
"We walked a long way to the grocery store and I was feeling faint, dizzy, like I needed to eat something so we decided to pick up some sandwiches and eat them while we were shopping," she says.

Leszczynski who is 30-weeks pregnant, her husband Marcin and daughter Zophia loaded up a shopping cart and paid for $50 worth of groceries. But forgot about the $5 sandwich.

"It was a complete distraction, distracted parent moment," she says.

That's when store security stopped them, and asked for their receipt.

"I offered to pay, we had the cash we just bought the groceries."

Instead she says the store Manager called police. The couple was taken to the HPD main station and arrested for 4th degree theft. Zophia was taken into custody by Child Protective Services.

Safeway's response to this story:

http://www.khon2.com/content/news/d...wich-arrest-story/uLPZumLt2kW04FANSLiNXQ.cspx

Safeway has issued an updated statement about our story about a Makiki couple who was arrested over a $5 sandwich.

Safeway says "it appears we may not have handled this matter in the best possible way and we are taking the situation seriously."

The couple had their three-year-old child taken into state custody after they were both arrested.

The family has been reunited.
 
I was just coming to start a thread on this. I watched the video... Wow. They had just moved to Hawaii the week before, she's pregnant, they had walked, they had a small child - I can totally understand forgetting to pay for a sandwich that you ate at the beginning of the shopping trip.

(We also may eat a snack while shopping - I have low blood sugar - and I'm sooo afraid that I will forget to pay one day. So I always take wrapper/container and put it in the cart when I'm finished so that I'll see it when unloading at the register)
 
I was just coming to start a thread on this. I watched the video... Wow. They had just moved to Hawaii the week before, she's pregnant, they had walked, they had a small child - I can totally understand forgetting to pay for a sandwich that you ate at the beginning of the shopping trip.

(We also may eat a snack while shopping - I have low blood sugar - and I'm sooo afraid that I will forget to pay one day. So I always take wrapper/container and put it in the cart when I'm finished so that I'll see it when unloading at the register)

That is exactly what I do, too, I put the wrapper in the cart so I won't forget.
Thirty years ago I was arrested in a supermarket for not paying for a handful of mushrooms I ate while shopping. I wasn't trying to steal them, to be honest I was just embarrassed that I didn't wait until I got home to eat them. I put some in a bag, snacked on them while shopping and went back and put some more in the bag. Maybe a quarter's worth. And on the way out I was arrested. I really didn't take it seriously, though. I thought when I got to court and explained to the judge what happened he would laugh and say he did the same thing, too. Big mistake right there.
That thought was gone as soon as I saw how he handled the other cases. A mother who stole some food for her family had the book thrown at her. Another for taking a candy bar. I was scared and I was right to be. I, too, had the book thrown at me. I can't remember what but it was like a large fine, community service and a suspended jail sentence, I think.
What really upset me was learning it would go on my record. That sent me into hysterics and someone who worked at the court took me across the street to a public defender's office who heard my story and went back to the courtroom with me and got the judge to hear my case again, saying I didn't have counsel the first time. He was able to get it thrown out but I really learned my lesson then and I don't eat a grape while shopping, only things I can keep the wrapper for so I can pay for them.
 
This couple got what they deserved, but I do feel badly for the little girl. You cannot consume food you have not paid for! You wouldnt open a bottle of pills, a box of tampons, or a bottle of mascara and use it in the store. Come on people. Thats the tackiest thing to me, to see people walking around the store eating. If you are that hungry, pack a snack. Pay for a snack then go eat it in the car. geez

I think they intended to steal it, and when caught they offered to pay. If every thief were given the opportunity to pay, what would be the point? I'd bet my house that this isn't the first time they "forgot".

People say "they bought $50 in groceries" as if that means they had money. How do we know they didn't have $60 to their name, and tried to cut corners at the grocery store. Plus, idk where you people live, but $50 in groceries would not last my family of 3 for very long.

Any who, I hope these grocery store grazers (aka thiefs) learned a valuable lesson!!!
 
This is the most ridiculous excuse for attention -- I make sure the cashier sees what I eat while shopping IF I do consume something (especially in Super f*%$*^g Walmart). However, if they do not see/understand what I give them, how is this my issue? Most of the time they throw it away & do not retrieve it to scan it (lazy)!

No way should this have escalated to how it's portrayed. Glad to see Safeway has apologized . . .
 
I wasn't sure where to put this, but as I just read it, I had to put it somewhere.

This is so ridiculous to me. They took their 3 year old away for 18 hours over a complete mistake in overlooking paying for a sandwich...

http://www.khon2.com/mostpopular/st...d-over-5-sandwich/h-yUAH_SuEOvm_PZfXUcZA.cspx



Safeway's response to this story:

http://www.khon2.com/content/news/d...wich-arrest-story/uLPZumLt2kW04FANSLiNXQ.cspx

So let me get this straight. A pregnant woman goes into a store and while shopping eats a sandwich. She and her husband forget to pay and are confronted by store personnel. Having managed a (different type) of store before my reaction would have been to laugh and say; "Ok just pay the cashier I can completely understand the mistake with a three year old to watch over as well."

However, this manager sees a criminal mastermind who started with a $5 sandwich and thinks she'll move up to robbing banks someday if he doesn't show her the law is the law. How could this guy watch the pregnant woman being put into cuffs along with her husband and see their kid (who was probably crying at being separated from their parents) and still think they're right. What a :censored: this guy is.

There are times I've been at Wegmans and felt my blood sugar getting low and so I'll pick up a bottle of Coke and go to the service desk and pay for it. I then have them tape the receipt around the bottle so I can drink and continue shopping.

My attitude was always to call the police about shoplifters and my company never let shoplifters go. However, if I did something along the lines of what this manager did I might have been fired.
 
Wow! Safeway's response is underwhelming. Read the article for their response. I quoted the part I found most interesting;

http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-safeway-drops-sandwich-theft-charges-022842086.html

APNewsBreak: Safeway drops sandwich theft charges
APBy JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER


...Four hours later, a police officer arrived and read them their rights. A woman from the Child Welfare Services arrived to take Zofia away.

Leszczynski called the incident "so horrifying. It seemed to escalate and no one could say, 'this is too much.'"

The pregnant mother said she tried to keep her composure until Zofia, who turns 3 in December, left the store.

"I didn't want Zofia to be scared because she's never spent a night away from us. She didn't have her stuffed animal. She didn't have her toothbrush."

But as soon as her daughter left, "I got completely hysterical. I went to the bathroom and I threw up," she recalled....
 
So let me get this straight. A pregnant woman goes into a store and while shopping eats a sandwich. She and her husband forget to pay and are confronted by store personnel. Having managed a (different type) of store before my reaction would have been to laugh and say; "Ok just pay the cashier I can completely understand the mistake with a three year old to watch over as well."

However, this manager sees a criminal mastermind who started with a $5 sandwich and thinks she'll move up to robbing banks someday if he doesn't show her the law is the law. How could this guy watch the pregnant woman being put into cuffs along with her husband and see their kid (who was probably crying at being separated from their parents) and still think they're right. What a :censored: this guy is.

There are times I've been at Wegmans and felt my blood sugar getting low and so I'll pick up a bottle of Coke and go to the service desk and pay for it. I then have them tape the receipt around the bottle so I can drink and continue shopping.

My attitude was always to call the police about shoplifters and my company never let shoplifters go. However, if I did something along the lines of what this manager did I might have been fired.

Steely, your posts are always dead on. Sometimes I wonder if we share the same brain :crazy: My daughter has Type 1 Diabetes and does carb counting and insulin injections with every meal. Sometimes the insulin dose may be a little to high and her sugar runs low, especially if we walk alot afterwards. This has happened several times while shopping at our local grocery store and we always grab something for her off the shelf if we don't have something on hand at the time. I do always pay for what she eats at the checkout but I have almost forgot before (after reading this-thank goodness I haven't).
I can't understand why this store would not just take the money for the sandwich and let it go.
 
I believe a part of being a criminal is intent. Did this couple intend to walk in the store, eat a sammich, and not pay for it? Did they hide it under their coat, in their purse, or did they eat the sammich and leave the wrapper in the cart for all to see.

I do believe they intended to pay for the sammich and not steal it. Mom is pregnant, and with a toddler. She's also probably flustered in all the activity getting to the store, and figuring out how to get home. It happens.

Now if this family was skirting out of the store with a couple of steaks under their coats, I would say the manager did the right thing. In this case I simply do not.

They should have been allowed to pay for their sandwiches and let go.

IMHO

Mel
 
I don't know. I heard about this and at first I was like "what's the big deal" but then I thought, how is it possible that BOTH of them forgot to pay? I could see if one person forgot to pay but both of them?

If you take a step back away from the "highlights" of the story that the parents want you to think about like "hungry mom" "pregnant" "forgot to pay" and "only five dollars" you see something kinda disturbing

These two parents took their child with them and deliberately committed a crime of shoplifting. They probably figured that if they got caught they'd plead forgetfulness and just pony up the $5. However this is why you don't commit a crime while you have a small child with you because the child will be taken into custody. And these two are having another one.

I highly doubt the manager would have pressed charges if he didn't feel there was something more to this. So I'm hesitant to jump on the outraged bandwagon. However Safeway dropped the charges because it's not worth the bad press.

How could both of them forget to pay? This was a little con and they got busted.
 
I agree Chewy. I live here and this was a con.

I'm sure they thought that having their little child with them would stop anyone from calling LE on them. But it didn't.

Now safeway has a barrage of bad press because they tried to report someone for theft.

Such and outcry was raised that they dropped charges and issued an apology. But IMHO this was a scam. Over here ----(I'm on the same island) they have to use safety stickers that you see on high end electronics and such ----at Flippin' Grocery Stores.

That's how bad the theft problem here is---yet if someone wants to press charges they are being harsh brah.

Give me a break LOL.
 
What is even more annoying is that now they plan on suing Safeway, and I really hope Safeway doesn't settle with them. I'm getting tired of people getting away or even profiting off bad behavior because companies can't deal with the media scrutiny.
 
BBM - "They loaded up a shopping cart and paid for $50 worth of groceries". Couldn't have been a long shopping trip if they spent only $50, imo.


I wonder what they did with the wrapper the sandwich was in? Did they have that in their cart, or had they thrown it away?


I was just coming to start a thread on this. I watched the video... Wow. They had just moved to Hawaii the week before, she's pregnant, they had walked, they had a small child - I can totally understand forgetting to pay for a sandwich that you ate at the beginning of the shopping trip.
(We also may eat a snack while shopping - I have low blood sugar - and I'm sooo afraid that I will forget to pay one day. So I always take wrapper/container and put it in the cart when I'm finished so that I'll see it when unloading at the register)
 
What is even more annoying is that now they plan on suing Safeway, and I really hope Safeway doesn't settle with them. I'm getting tired of people getting away or even profiting off bad behavior because companies can't deal with the media scrutiny.

I don't see a lawsuit being successful. What were the damages to this couple? Separating from their child from 18 hours hardly rises to emotional suffering---and what would this couple have done if they had both (god forbid) been injured in an accident? The child would have been gone into the care of CPS because they had no other plan or choice.

They are thieves, plain and simple. Things don't add up.

a) if the wife was feeling "faint", why did the husband eat a sandwich too?
b) if the wrapper was left in the cart, why didnt they take it out when they unloaded everything else?
c) we do not have all the facts, only the mom's side of the story. Perhaps security watched them eat and then further act suspicious...the average shoplifter steals something like 100 times before being caught, and it usually starts with little stupid stuff (like sandwiches) SMH
 
None of y'all have ever forgotten to pay for anything? Never? Really? Never forgot about that milk or bag of dog food beneath the cart? I manage to do that every year or so, and my intent has never been to steal. A few times when my kids were really small I'd notice something unpaid for in their hands as I belted them into their car seats. I've always gone back in to pay. Having second thoughts about that now.
 
I don't see a lawsuit being successful. What were the damages to this couple? Separating from their child from 18 hours hardly rises to emotional suffering---and what would this couple have done if they had both (god forbid) been injured in an accident? The child would have been gone into the care of CPS because they had no other plan or choice.

They are thieves, plain and simple. Things don't add up.

a) if the wife was feeling "faint", why did the husband eat a sandwich too?
b) if the wrapper was left in the cart, why didnt they take it out when they unloaded everything else?
c) we do not have all the facts, only the mom's side of the story. Perhaps security watched them eat and then further act suspicious...the average shoplifter steals something like 100 times before being caught, and it usually starts with little stupid stuff (like sandwiches) SMH

When CPS takes your kid, there is no guarantee you will get your kid back. IMO, until they got their kid back, that would be pretty severe trauma.
 
I agree Chewy. I live here and this was a con.

I'm sure they thought that having their little child with them would stop anyone from calling LE on them. But it didn't.

Now safeway has a barrage of bad press because they tried to report someone for theft.

Such and outcry was raised that they dropped charges and issued an apology. But IMHO this was a scam. Over here ----(I'm on the same island) they have to use safety stickers that you see on high end electronics and such ----at Flippin' Grocery Stores.

That's how bad the theft problem here is---yet if someone wants to press charges they are being harsh brah.

Give me a break LOL.

Theft is bad here too, so much that most high priced items are in locked cabinets. There are detectors at the front door, and a security guard that roams around. There are also undercover officers.

Makes me sit back and go "heck to the no" would I ever steal from a grocery store. But you can say I have. My son ate a bagel and I didn't pay for it :( I often open a bottle of water and drink it in the store, but always bring it to the counter. I see lots of open wrappers with a bite or 2 taken out and left.

So I can see where this is becoming a big problem -- especially in light of the economy and people are getting hungry! This thread will make me think twice before I let DS snatch a bagel from the bin.

Thx.

Mel
 
None of y'all have ever forgotten to pay for anything? Never? Really? Never forgot about that milk or bag of dog food beneath the cart? I manage to do that every year or so, and my intent has never been to steal. A few times when my kids were really small I'd notice something unpaid for in their hands as I belted them into their car seats. I've always gone back in to pay. Having second thoughts about that now.

I'm guilty. Even Bob is guilty! Do you ever hear your cashier ask the bagger "have you seen bob?". That means - did you check the "bottom of the basket"?

I had a case of waters that I didn't take out (honest mistake) and I walked out of the store and didn't pay for it. When I unloaded I said "oh carp", but put it in my trunk anyway. No, I didn't go back in the store.

Shame on me (said sincerely and not sarcastically).

Mel
 
I don't see a lawsuit being successful. What were the damages to this couple? Separating from their child from 18 hours hardly rises to emotional suffering---and what would this couple have done if they had both (god forbid) been injured in an accident? The child would have been gone into the care of CPS because they had no other plan or choice.

They are thieves, plain and simple. Things don't add up.

a) if the wife was feeling "faint", why did the husband eat a sandwich too?
b) if the wrapper was left in the cart, why didnt they take it out when they unloaded everything else?
c) we do not have all the facts, only the mom's side of the story. Perhaps security watched them eat and then further act suspicious...the average shoplifter steals something like 100 times before being caught, and it usually starts with little stupid stuff (like sandwiches) SMH

I'll go out on a limb here and be honest and admit that during a period of time when my husband was out of work for 8 months I actually shop lifted quite a few times. It wasn't sandwiches but things like buying a pack of chicken and then putting a few produce items in another shopping bag from another store. I was desperate and am horribly embarrassed and won't ever do it again.

However I always bought items (I never just went in and stole items and walked out) and I never did it unless I had the money in my pocket to pay for the item if they caught me. I too was banking on pleading forgetfulness.

That's why this seems really obvious to me as a con. If you added up the number of items I must have stolen over the course of four months it would have amounted to about $300. Karma got me in the end though, I wound up having $330 in overdraft charges because I used the wrong card when I paid.

So I got busted in the end by "some one" even if I never actually got caught by the store.

I would of course never have done it with my kids present. But I don't believe this couple. Like I said, I could imagine that the mother may have forgotten but if you DO eat something walking around the store, which I have also done in my more honest days :crazy: I always made sure it was the FIRST thing I scanned. Even if mom was frazzled and forgot dad should have remembered. It should be number one on your mind when you get to the counter. Chicken sammiches are tasty and unless they were in the store for a few hours it is ridiculous to suggest they "forgot."

I agree that the security guard probably saw them both conceal the wrappers. Like a plastic wrap with a sticker on it that dad rolled up and stuck in his pocket.
 
When CPS takes your kid, there is no guarantee you will get your kid back. IMO, until they got their kid back, that would be pretty severe trauma.

That's true, but misleading. The only way you will not get your kid back is if the state finds evidence to keep it in their custody. Even then, there is about a yearlong process that aims to reunite families.

Essentially, the 3 day review would have shown that there was no reason to keep the child. In this case, CPS pretty much served as childcare because the parents had no back up plan. The same would have happened if something else happened to mom and dad and they could not care for the kid.

18 hours hardly amounts to "severe trauma". But everyone is soooo litigation happy, so you exaggerating this point is not surprising...IMO
 

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