A North Carolina Food Lion called the cops on Joe Neal for pocketing a $3 steak. The 74-year-old didn’t have enough change to pay for the sirloin, which he intended to cook for his son’s birthday dinner. The steak was later consumed, not by Joe’s son, but by a fire that ravaged Joe’s house. The cops were summoned when Neal returned to the store to pay for the steak. Defending the arrest, Food Lion’s press-keepers explained that the store has a zero tolerance policy. Don’t miss WBTV’s expert analysis at the end.
Gastonia Man in Jail for Stolen Steak [WBTV] (Thanks To Chris)
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@nycguy:
I am guessing no one will give a crap, especially since from a quick google maps search, it seems to be the only grocery store in the downtown area.
This story totally reminds me of when Johnny Knoxville dresses up as an old man and starts lifting stuff from a convenience store..
Just saying…
@youbastid: It is if you do it because what he took was cheap. That would be making an exception based on the cost of what was taken. If you do that then the question of, “Where’s the cut off?” becomes relevant.
@waxigloo: There are quite a few grocery stores in Gastonia, actually. It is only 30 mins or so south from Charlotte also.
@machete_bear: esophagus? skirt steak is from the plate primal. It’s good and flavorful but has a lot of connective tissue, and is generally marinated and sliced to deal with the toughness. A lot of fajita steak is flank steak. The stuff is great when prepared right.
@busydoingnothing: Ah, it looks like we’re having a different understanding of the word “punishment”. I thought you meant whatever happened to him after he was arrested.
My argument is that the slippery slope is not a fallacy in this case. A slippery slope is a fallacy when in a chain of arguments (A therefore B, B therefore C, C therefore D) one of the arguments has to be invalid.
If you let the guy go because it was only $3, what happens in the case of a $5 theft is relevant. It matters because they based their decision on the cost of what was taken.
I don’t like that they pressed charges against him but I get why they feel like they have to treat all instances of shoplifting the same way.
@Rectilinear Propagation: Then when does the cut off become relevant to you? Had it been a 50 cent candybar that he came back to pay for, do you still think calling the police is justified? What about a couple grapes from the produce section? I’ll repeat my point: How come stores have magically turned a profit and not called the police in similar situations?
If I had to guess, I’d say probably by evaluating shoplifting on a case by case basis instead of throwing up zero tolerance buillshit.
i’m currently taking wagers on who will win the arguement……so far youbastid is favored 2 to 1!
@humphrmi:
I was about to write the same response, but I should correct you on one thing:
Petty theft (value less than $1000 in NC) is not a felony it is a misdemeanor. Speending is an infraction (or petty offense) which is even lower down the poll than a misdemeanor. Furthermore, you CAN get arrested for speeding because if you speed fast enough (depending on the state) it becomes a misdemeanor or a felony.
Otherwise, spot on…good reply.
@Falconfire: $150 is an awful lot of money for a grocery store to let go, isn’t it?
lets face it our system IS flawed and the punishment doesn’t always fit the crime. sorry to break it to some of you.
Then when does the cut off become relevant to you?
@youbastid: Why are you asking me? You’re the one who said, and I quote, How about a $4 one? Or an $8 one?” is irrelevant. How is that possible? If you’re letting it go because it’s $3 how can the question of $4 not matter?
@Rectilinear Propagation: Thank you for quoting me, I meant exactly what I said. I was using your faulty argument to make a point. Duh.
Thank you for quoting me, I meant exactly what I said.
@youbastid: Well I’ll agree with you on the “Duh” part since I didn’t say that you meant something else.
You still haven’t explained how my argument is faulty and how the dollar amount can be relevant and irrelevant at the same time.
Your argument is that you can’t let someone go for a $3 item because what happens when it’s $4, or $8, and you claim that there shouldn’t be a “cutoff.” This is faulty because if that’s the case, then by your rationale, eating a few grapes should land you in jail.
My argument is that the “$4 or $8″ is irrelevant, because there are other factors at hand here, which I’ve gone into detail in previous comments.
Your argument is that you can’t let someone go for a $3 item because what happens when it’s $4, or $8, and you claim that there shouldn’t be a “cutoff.”
@youbastid: No it isn’t. I’ve never said you can’t let someone go at $4 or $8 or even $3. I’ve never argued that there shouldn’t be a cutoff.
My argument is that the “$4 or $8″ is relevant because you make it relevant when you let someone go based on how much they stole.
@Rectilinear Propagation: OK, it sounded like I did here:
If they don’t press charges against this man over a $3 steak but do press charges against someone else over a $5 they leave themselves open to being accused of discrimination.
I was unclear. What I meant was that this is how the store looks at it.
To people pro-”zero tolerance”
I think you are missing the point.
First of all, he came back to RETURN it.
You would think the cops wouldnt be called because the guy had the balls to come back to the store and admit it.
Second of all, situations like this clog up the jails and waste policemens time.
Third of all, it makes for embarassing press on the store’s side of things.
Forth of all, stories like these just go to show how sad things are in this country. People have steal food to celebrate birthdays.
Oh man, only if I could steal oil for heating…
@jaydez: i’m not sure i can agree with you. when we spend our resources on petty crimes such as theft of a $3 item, we fill our jails with people who aren’t supposed to be there. we are always wasting our resources preying on the wrong people.
A while back I went through the checkout at Giant Foods and noticed that the half off items we’re ringing up at full price. After getting sort of a runaround I asked to talk to the manager, he told me it was a company wide computer error and headquarters told him to let it happen and take care of the complaints in the CS line. I asked him how different was this than if I left without paying and just said I would come back later. Then I told him that the police need to get involved because it is company wide theft, he went ballistic, told the checkout girls to tell customers what was going on , and refunded me my money!
I guess they we’re trying not to backup the checkout lanes and pocket the thousands of loot!
@VicMatson: Refunded you what money? The items were ringing up at half price, was he manually typing in the half price in there so you wouldn’t pay the full price? How was he doing it? I know at my grocery store, there’s not a soul to help you when you’re in one of those self-scan lanes.
There’s just so much stupid from all sides in this story I am almost rendered speechless.
Is shoplifting one of those things that’s on The Bucket List?
Hold on now. Was he actually going back to pay for it, or was that his excuse after he was stupid enough to go back and was grabbed? Maybe he was going back to steal some sauce for the steak or something. We’ll never know…But still, if you’re gonna steal, steal something good. If you don’t have the money, come back later. He deserves punishment regardless of his age or the dollar amount of the item. He’s shown an ability to break and disregard for the law. He should be arrested and be sorry instead of going running to the local news looking for sympathy. In fact, just burn him on a cross…(Sorry, getting a little carried away here)
I sincerely wish that there were two tax rates: One for sane people, and one for idiotic twits who think that it’s a good idea to spend thousands of public dollars to jail and prosecute a guy who came back to pay for a $3 steak.
Top tip: If somebody steals $3 from your store, take their photo, ban them from the store, don’t waste my tax money.
Oh, and I hope each and every one of you “they should be arrested” twits has a child who shoplifts and is arrested.
That way you can spend thousands and thousands of dollars to keep your child’s life from being ruined by a $5 error.
Maybe then you’ll realize why it is that you’re sociopathic idiots with no sense of proportion. But probably not.
Meat is one of the most common items shoplifted from a market.
What the man did was wrong, but he still was an idiot for going back and trying to pay for it. It annoys me more that the store would even call the cops for this incident… they should have just refused the money and asked him to never visit the store again.
That store sucks, but so does the country its in so it goes with the territory. It pays to be honest, but only in an honest country.
@Eyebrows McGee:
So, is (say) a tagger OK in your low-cost county? Hell, when they spray paint gang signs on your front porch, it might only cause $3 damage (the cost of paint to cover it), right? So, that’s OK? How ’bout if those gangbangers hang out in your front yard, since you’re so accommodating?
OK fine this guy isn’t a gangbanger. But you’re drawing an arbitrary line somewhere here, and it’s a slippery slope getting the line drawn back to the side of law and order. One wrong step, and we’re in Pakistan, putting the rule of law on hold because we don’t like it.
@ihateauditions: If, G-d forbid, one of my sons ever does stray the wrong side of the law and tries shoplifting to get something he can’t afford, I hope that they arrest him and take his picture and finger prints and make him sit in a cell until I get good damn ready to come pick him up. Then he can get a job to pay off his own damn legal bills, as well as my gas to come pick him up. Maybe then he’ll appreciate the rule of law, or at least understand the consequences of violating it.
@DallasDMD: How about this for a point. Are you saying it’s ok to come break into your house and take your stuff? I mean it’s the same logic.
@newspapersaredead:
What kids? He’s freaking 74, his kids are long moved out. If he was hungry he should have gone to a food bank. So can I come break into your place and take your shit?
I hope you folks who think we should throw the book at Joe never have had your car or house broken into and personal items stolen. If a car thief grabs your GPS or new iPod and you expect the police to open an investigation, they’ll laugh in your face. Your chances of ever recovering the goods are zero unless a crime ring is busted or the thief slips up.
@Hawk07: My car has been broken into twice. Both times, they broke a $25 wing window to get into my car before they realized that I don’t keep anything worth shit in it. In both cases, I had a spare car I could use, and asked the cops to run prints. It was like a scene out of The Big Lebowski when the cop says “Leads? Yeah, we got guys working shifts on it!” There are drug dealers in my neighborhood, so I figure (if they’re tracking these scumbags, as they say they are) they’ll get a hit from my car. Their response? They don’t want to waste their time on it. A $25 window ain’t worth their time, even if the drug dealers (who they have prints on file) did it. How would you feel if a cheap-ass $25 window was broken on your car or house and the cops said “Nah, it ain’t worth our time”? “Just give the guy who broke it a break”, right? Give the criminals a record? Eh? Nah, I’m sure they didn’t mean it. They’ll apologize, just as soon as they get caught, just like this 74 year-old guy who wants to feed his son Joe a steak. The steak you’re trying to sell Joe’s dad probably ain’t worth shit anyway and you should feel ashamed for trying to get money for it. It doesn’t matter that you feel violated because Joe’s dad stole stuff that you paid good money for, you should be thankful that Joe’s dad came back and offered you some money for it. Just shut up and act like a “gentleman” for crissake.
As usual, I’m chiming in late. Good: He returned to pay for the steak that he STOLE. Bad: F.L. then turned him over to police after he admitted the misdeed – like a common thief that they had personally caught.
Food Lion had every right to expect punishment, but they did go a bit far in this case. They should have made him pay for the steak – and then banned him from coming to their store for a year (or some time frame).
Age is not an issue. The fact his house burned is not an issue. It’s more an issue of a person did something that they shouldn’t have done, but tried to make good.
@humphrmi: I know a little about where you’re coming from. I had $200 worth of damage done to my vehicle when some P.O.S. decided to steal my $20 pool stick. The police were nice enough to tell me that they doubted I’d ever find out who did it. Gotta love positive attitudes.
WE CAN NOT WORK OUT DIFFERENCES AS PEOPLE. THE POLICE NEED TO BE CALLED ALL THE TIME! AND THE WHEELS OF THE SYSTEM PUT IN MOTION!
I don’t care if he’s 5 years old stealing a dog whistle. If someone tries to make good on a crime through honesty he should still get maximum punishment.
Know why his house burned down? Because he’s an evil shoplifter that should get the gas chamber.
@DallasDMD:
I’d like to contact Food Lion and tell them I am no longer shopping at their stores. Unfortunately, they were such pieces of crap, they closed down all their stores in the area because no one shopped at them.
In the end, I think we can agree that what he did in the first place was wrong. He even admitted stealing it was wrong. The issue is with the store. He came back to pay them for it, they overreacted completely, and here we are.
Have any of you checked your receipt later and found the cashier didn’t ring up an item? Did you go back and try to make amends? After this incident, would you feel safe to do it after an incident like this?
Sure the are not exactly comparable, but close enough. One was by intention, the other was not, but in the end you would still be considered shoplifting.
So like I said, we all can agree that him stealing was wrong, but him coming back when he didn’t have to showed that he didn’t deserve the treatment the store gave him. Food Lion can go out of business for all I care. When they were open in my area, they were complete garbage.
I deal with this crap everyday….. if you see it; deal with it NOW; if not, it didn’t happen!!
Good case for a lawsuit…i’ve seen ‘em happen for less.
Yes, i have a grocery store.
I think shoplifting is wrong by anyone’s standardized.
However, I think having a man arrest AFTER he comes back to pay for it is just uncalled for.
Oh yeah, I shouldn’t forget to mention there are several times where the cashier forgets to ring something up and I come back later to pay for it. What, arrest me for paying for what you guys forget to charge?
What he should have done– is brought back the steak wrapper and complained about the steak’s quality. Tell them he forgot the receipt and they’d give him $3.00 gift card refund!
The score in this situation would be: Man 2 Food Lion 0.
(1 for free steak +1 for refund)
But alas, it is Food Lion 1 Man -1.
(-1 for trying to pay after lifting the steak)