Actually the title of the story is misleading, he wasn't charged with theft at all, but disorderly conduct. This was probably a good call by the authorities as it would be hard to convict on larceny theft for picking up some sand. There was a case similar to this when I was an intern at a law office back in my college days. The gist of it was the owner of a mobile home park wanted a resident charged with theft because they filled up large a tank with water from his spigots. However because he provided the water free of charge and didn't specify a limit, the courts viewed it as having no value regardless if a customer used 1 gallon or 50,000 gallons.
I can’t imagine why they didn’t just ignore the fool.