(Ninja M.)
If you want to make headlines by breaking into a closed bar and re-opening it on your own without a liquor license, plan on spending 15 days in jail and paying a $160 fine for your fun.
A Northern California man who did just that was sentenced to the fine and jail time, scheduled to head to the slammer Oct. 19, the Sacramento Bee reports. The entrepreneur isn’t allowed back at the club unless he somehow lands a job there.
The man re-opened the closed club and served as many as 30 customers a day before, as the sagelike songstress Ke$ha would but it, the po-po shut him down, down.
Man who re-opened distressed Penryn bar sentenced [Sacramento Bee]
(Thanks, dangerp!)
Previously: Industrious Homeless Man Breaks Into Shuttered Bar To Start Selling Booze
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So he basically gets to live somewhere for 15 days and it’ll cost $160? That’s actually pretty good rent price considering that’s half a month. Not to mention that in the meantime and during his trial he had to be housed somewhere. Maybe he can rent his jail cell on craigslist.
And the $160 fine is just a cost of doing business.
I believe that you actually have to pay the state for the privilege of being in their “hotel.”
source? I am trying to find proof of that claim, but all I can find is the option to pay by night at jail for better treatment (ipod, laptop, better security from gangs, etc.).
This just randomly came up as I googled…
http://www.pbso.org/index.cfm?fa=corrections_IMB_property#dailyfee
I think it varies by jurisdiction…a friend of mine who kept getting confused about whether or not he was supposed to drive drunk told me he had to pay something like $15 a day for his stay at the local county hotel.
Hmmm…not so sure about this…if I recall, you can actually serve jail time in lieu of paying fines in many cases. In that case, the state pays you for staying in their hotel
*15 days in ass-pounding jail and $160.
county lock up is not an ass pounding jail. County is you go if you are drunk and disorderly or any number of things. It’s for normal citizens who get caught up in stupid shit.
$160.00 and 15 days in jail? TOTALLY WORTH IT.
oh no you did-ent with the Ke$sha reference…
Maybe the title should read, “Man goes from behind bar to behind bars.”
+1
Or, “Man behind bar barred from bar, behind bars.”
Awesome!
Tangential question: Anyone out there know how to pronounced “Ke$ha”? The dollar sign may mean something … i.e. a unit of currency … but it has no sound associated with it, in English or in any other language. I figure it must be silent, which would make her name “key-huh,” but that sounds a little like a Korean car manufacturer.
I always thought it implied an “S” because Kesha is a real name.
Yes, “Kesha Rose Sebert” is her (real) name, and according to her, she stylized her name to include the $ in an effort to be ironic – “it actually stood for the opposite of putting a lot of emphasis on money.”
I’m guessing that it’s “ironic” because she grew up very poor, welfare, food stamps, etc., and now she’s worth millions.
*Shrug*
Maybe it’s ironic because now she looks like she can’t afford shampoo.
yup, a greasy, stringy haired female John Travolta…….
Actually I think it’s because she can’t think of any other way to distingush herself from the rest of the recording artists of her ilk (whatever the genre is). Time was, people used to distinguish themselves by “excellence.” But excellence requires work. It’s much easier to use a cheap orthographic gimmick. Wouldn’t be the first time … there’s someone named Will.I.Am out there … and no, I haven’t any idea how to pronounce that either.
what was that? i’m sorry, i wasn’t paying attention. all these shiny, flashy things were distracting me.
will.i.am… isn’t it just Will I Am? a la the old standard of using a . to replace a space in old operating systems?
I dunno, Bester has a point. While the symbol resembles, an S, it is not an S. It always irritates me when people replace non-alphabet symbols for alphabet characters.
“Kedollarha”? Ooh. “Kedollarsignha”
“$” has been an acceptable substitute for “S” ever since Scrooge McDuck used it for his monogram. Like it or not, the Duck lobby always gets its way.
I used to love those comics.. I’ve still got a ton of ‘em in storage, somewhere. lol
I seem to recall an anecdote about a woman named La-a pronouncing it Ladasha…
“I seem to recall an anecdote about a woman named La-a pronouncing it Ladasha…”
Pseudoracist trash.
Kecentsa if you work for Verizon.
placenta?
Heard a radio announcer pronounce it KESH-uh.
I always call her Kedollarsignha.
What would ?uestlove do?
maybe it’s like Ke cha-ching sha?
I always thought it was pronounced “Key-shit”, but that’s just me…
Kesh-uh is how they always say it on MTV… I used to always say KEE-suh before I heard it there.
I pronounce it “No Talent Ass Clown”
but I like your beard.
FREE TRAVIS!!!
Really? I don’t know…kinda got plenty of Travis here already…but what the heck. If it’s free.
FREE WILLY!
So, he was in business for about 5 days. Served 30 a day 150 people with an average 10 dollar tab, 1500 dollars and he has to pay a $160 fine and go to jail for 15 days. Not a bad deal. He’ll probably get out a few days earlier too.
“Playing the savvy business owner, Kevie reinvested profits from drink sales back into the business: He started with a six-pack of beer purchased from a convenience store across the street and used the proceeds from customers to buy more alcohol, deputies said.”
That’s from the linked article the Consumerist references.
So he didn’t keep pure profits, as he had to buy more booze. But I kind of feel for this guy. He was just trying to get out of being homeless in a hopeless job market and well — work! I would love to see someone read this story, then take a chance to hire the man. In our society we often assume the homeless are mentally ill, drug addicts/useless drunks, or just plain lazy. I think if this man was any of those things he would not have ventured to do what he did, and be successful at it! It’s sad that he has to go back out on the streets considering what he’s capable of.
I wish I could help him, but I don’t live in Cali.
This. Maybe what he did wasn’t right, but it’s commendable. He was working to fix his situation, which definitely earns him some respect. Kudos for the enterprising spirit!
to me, it’s a commentary on our society as a whole. we are a very industrious group of people & given the opportunity, we’ll work hard at something.
the problem is that lately, the opportunities are few & far between.
except he did it by stealing somone elses property, and now the owner is likely stuck with an electric bill etc.
In reality, he probabaly wasnt profitable. If he brought in 1500 dollars for 15 days, thats 100 dollars a day. Open 10 hours, thats 10 dollars an hour, subtract cost of alcohol, and he was probabaly bringin in 7/hr, he is now below minimum wage. Now add on things like rent (had he not been tresspassing) electricity, etc and he is in the negative. Which is exactly where this business was when it shut down for financial reasons.
All he proved was its incredibly easy to be profitable when you have no expenses.
for a regular person that is true it is not a good deal, but for a homeless person it was likely more than he was making before, and with the publicity someone may hire him to bar tend, because he is interesting.
So, I can get an $855 traffic citation, but this guy gets away with just $160 for breaking and entering, operating a business without licenses, and who knows what else?!?
OK, just pulling numbers out of my butt, assuming cheap drinks,
$6 a drink, figure 3 drinks per customer, 30 customers a day: 6 x 3 x 30 = $540 a day. Deduct about $120 per day for the actual booze (assuming he isn’t using the ultra cheap stuff that’s common in the USA). That’s still $420 a day, and using what I think are very conservative figures. I don’t know how long he had it up and running, spending 15 days in jail and paying $160 in fines sounds like it’s a good business venture.
I figure he’s not paying any overhead if he broke into the place, so he’s not paying a water or electric bill (poor guy that owns the place is going to have a coronary when he gets the bill).
Tips? I guess we’re assuming he’s not serving Consumerist commenters.
It’s not like he broke into a business to ROB it. He broke into a business and WORKED.
Pretty ingenious.
A man chooses! A slave obeys! Now, would you kindly pour me a beer?
Sigh. I know this speaks volumes about me, but Ke$ha never says “po-po shut us down, down”. She sings “the police shut us down, down” but the line about the po-po goes “po-po shut us….”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP6XpLQM2Cs#t=1m39s
so this guy went out and made money for himself illegally
well, at least he isn’t a CEO that steals from others
Personally, I’d hire this guy…. he’s got a great business mind…
Consider this his resume.
Really? A great business mind because he came up with the genius idea of selling alcohol for a profit?
Would you think to do this? No?
I’m going to have to pass on your app, but I’ll hold on to your resume for 6 months in case any other positions open up… i.e. cleaning toilets.
I give him credit for having an idea that was fairly honest. While other people are robbing people for cash, he found a way to WORK for it.
I wouldn’t hire him. I would always be fearful he would open up shop after hours to create his own sub-business.
The man is always pulling me down.