Homeless Twix thief gets 180 days for swiping $2 in candy bars

[HooptieWagon]

11. A similar situation, another Florida Judge:

A friend of mine is a Hillsborough County ( Tampa) judge in family court. Occasionly he is assigned a criminal case to help with backlog. About a year ago, he had a case of a teenage boy who lived in a foster home. The boy stole a sandwich from a convienience store, and was caught a half block away while eating the sandwich. During trial, it came out that foster parents kept the refridgerator padlocked. The judge felt that the crime couldn't go unpunished, but was sympethetic to the boy having a ravenous teenage son himself. He sentenced the boy to a token amount of community service hours, ordered his record cleared, and ordered the foster parents to remove the padlock from the fridge. He said it was the best je could do under the circumstances. BTW, the prosecutor wanted jail time, and the judge caught a bit of flak for a sentence under the required minimum.