Posted on 10/17/2013 9:54:33 AM PDT by Deadeye Division
Deidre Romine said shes 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 didnt 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 shes been struggling to make ends meet and about to lose her apartment and now shes worried that shell get locked up.
Im trying to feed myself and Ive got four cats Im 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 Romines case manager.
jkemp@nydailynews.com
How is using the money people have tossed away considered stealing?
It’s an interesting commentary on society today that the papaer just assumes we know that she has a case manager.
“How is using the money people have tossed away considered stealing?”
All your money belong to the government.
"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.
Never understood why people throw money into fountains....Ok, I get throwing them into the Trevi Fountain in Rome, but other than that...
Was wondering the same thing. What’s the difference between loose change in a fountain, on the ground, a parking lot, etc?
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...
In the old days the cop would have given her a couple of bucks instead of a summons.
Which one will the Government Bless?
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.
Luckily she didn’t have a dog.
Perhaps that effort would have been better spent trying to get a job.
Don’t steal from the fountain faeries. They’ll sic the cops on you.
Seriously, the cop should be fired. His salary is money wasted.
Bellefontaine Mayor Gets WIC Assistance (DemocRAT)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2936453/posts
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.
Hope and Change...............just don’t get caught with the change............
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