Cops follow woman home for stealing a cake.

So I just got done watching a episode of Cops. Apparentely these cops followed a woman and her son home. Once they parked the car, the cops walked up to the car and asked the woman what she had been doing that day. She said she was going grocery shopping. They checked her bags and then told her they caught her on camera in some grocery store, stealing a cake. (The cake turned out to be 10 dollars). They took the woman to jail, and turned her 16 year old son over to his grandmothers for custody.

Now im not condoning stealing, but FOLLOWING A WOMAN HOME AND TAKING HER TO JAIL OVER A CAKE?! I couldnt believe what I was seeing.

The woman had no priors, seemed like a decent lady, couldnt they have just gave her a warning or a ticket or make her pay for it, like they do most people?!

Yeah that's pretty disgusting. I could understand if they had evidence she was a hard-core klepto, and got a warrant to search her house, and found all this stolen stuff in it then it would be alright I guess. But with no prior convictions and no other evidence they shouldn't be doing that. They should have just asked her to pay for it, or given her a fine, or ban her from the store.

Actually it would make more sense to fine people if you catch them committing petty theft, than to arrest them. If its not over $100, and they didn't hurt anyone, why take them to jail?

How did she smuggle the cake out anyway? I can't see how you could hide something like that as you walk through checkout.

It was a farely small cake. As she was walking out the store she pretty much just picked it up and walked out with it.

I was sitting there for 10 minutes thinking "Did this really happen?! Jail for a cake?! WHAT!?"

reply to post by Jess_Undefined


Many cities started a zero tolerance practice after New York City's concept. The thought was, most of the dangerous criminals and bail jumpers would not give a care about the lesser laws, including jaywalking. The order was to stop and ticket the person who did the minor offense, and many turned out to actually be bail jumpers or have many warrants on them. Violent crime went down in the cities that started the policy big time.

If all she did was steal the cake, why not write her a citation? It could be because theft and/or shoplifting is a higher misdemeanor that requires processing. She was probably released later that night.