'Theft by finding':

[gmb45]

Woman who took potato waffles and pies thrown out by Tesco is handcuffed and charged with stealing


ffs the worlds gone mad

• 'I thought I could help feed me and my family for a week or two'

Sasha Hall, 21, helped herself to potato waffles, pies and ham from outside the Tesco Express in Great Baddow, Essex

A woman was handcuffed and 'treated like a hardened criminal' after she helped herself to food worth ?200 that had been thrown away by a Tesco store following a power cut.

Dozens of people could not believe their luck after the outlet of the supermarket giant bagged up thousands of pounds of spoiled stock and left it out in the street.

Sasha Hall, 21, helped herself to potato waffles, pies and ham from outside the Tesco Express in Great Baddow, Essex.

But she was stunned when police arrived at her home and arrested her for suspected 'theft by finding' and took her to the station in handcuffs.

'There was ?3,000 worth of food going to waste on the street,' she told the Essex Chronicle.

'It had been thrown out, so I thought I could put it to better use.

'When the police came round I was so upset. I felt like a terrible criminal.'

The shop worker said the supermarket - which has the motto 'Every little helps' - should have been pleased that the food would be put to good use.

The Tesco Express in Great Baddow where food was thrown out following a power cut

She said: 'I would think the police have better things to be doing with their time than going after people who pick up potato waffles from the street. It's all been blown totally out of proportion.

'Tesco clearly did not want the food. They dumped it and rather than see it go to waste, I thought I could help feed me and my family for a week or two.'

Ms Hall, from Great Baddow, said she was shocked by the way the police dealt with the incident.

'They knocked at the door and said if I didn't open up they would use a battering ram,' she said.

'They handcuffed me and treated me like I was a hardened criminal and when we left they raided my house.

'I haven't got lots of money. I only make ?600 a month. I'm on the brink of getting kicked out of my flat because I can't pay my arrears.'

A Tesco spokesman said: 'We are assisting the police with their inquiries. We seek to minimise waste in all our stores and where possible will seek to reuse and recycle it.'

Ms Hall, who works part-time at a rival supermarket in Chelmsford, is to appear in magistrates court on February 16 charged with theft by finding.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Woman took thrown out Tesco food handcuffed and arrested | Mail Online

[Canker_Canison]

If Tesco just dumped it out on the street they should be charged with littering & fly tipping.

[Grizz]

thats scandalous, reminds me of the story of jean valjean in Les Miserables. i hope tesco get plenty of publicity for this, the cops are nearly worse for entertaining it.

[flyingpig]

I don't agree with this at all, it's scandalous that a person could be charged with theft.

From Tescos point of view, if there is ?3k worth of free food going into local houses, that is possibly ?3k not going in there pockets by people not buying the food. It's not like they need the dosh though is it.

[Meat-Head]

What about other people?

Yes does happen, here in Meat-City somebody got done for same offense, some copper wire that was on top of a skip. - carrier bag full - Too be fair the guy was a pikey, so was 'worth' doing him for it.

[reddevil157]

~~~~ing disgraceful, Tesco should av told locals there would be some food goin a begging, would av been good publicity for them too, ar*eholes. With regard to the cops, common sense should av prevailed.

[chroma]

Devils Advocate time.

I used to compact a lot of chilled wastage, meat, eggs, milk, cheese and the like. roughly 16k worth a week, a lot of it still in code (date codes, there's usually two, "sell by" and "use by")

I wondered why i was forced to do this, i mean there are soup kitchens, homeless and the like starving why not let them have it?

Turns out the answer makes sense.

Claims4you! and associated clownboats. people suing the asses off of everyone else because they're too ~~~~ing stupid to tie their own shoelaces and should be rewarded for their blatant ineptitude.

All it takes is for one person to approach trading standards with a supermarket branded ready meal that's out of code and voila they're on to a fortune from a lawsuit as well as the supermarket being fined into the ground by the government for "being helpful" on top of paying the idiot who's suing in the first place.
An out of date ?3 sausage and mash ready meal is a loss of ?3, if a customer pinches it then it could wind up as a loss of ?30,000+ because simply put people are complete bastards.

Hence the reason for tesco management calling the rozzers, theyre just covering their asses, cause like i said all it would have taken was a simple trip from the dump to trading standards and tescos is ~~~~ed. by informing the cops there's evidence to suggest they didnt sell it out of code and therefore protect their ass.

Funny how the media's spun it though, failing to take into consideration that most important of variables.

People are total coonts!
Maybe if retards didn't sue the shit out of people for going up inappropriate ladders in the first place instead of refusing till proper equipment was in place, the world might be a better place, but nope everyone's out for themselves.
Too selfish to see the knock on effects of their actions.

[tornado]

i took a jubilee clip of a dumped car which had been in the woods near me for years and ended up in crown Court the judge thought it was so silly me being there he made the police say sorry to me but i did have to move after

[Meat-Head]

he made the police say sorry to me but i did have to move after

awesome judge, why did you have to move?

[tornado]

the judge said if i dont i would end back up in front of him i used to get stopped atleast 6 times anite i had more produce slips than they had in the end it got so silly i had to sell my car so moved over 200 miles away and been fine since then

[super jumbe]

The Authorities are always keen to put most people in large on the Criminal Records Bureau in the grounds of finding then easy on there systems, but once you are on the record your future of finding employment or travelling to some countries are limited.

[badapple]

We had similar expirence with ASS law little while ago.

A customer left her mobile phone in the taxi, the driver called office and reported the phone as "found in car", as he did not know who it belonged to.

I told him to look though the phone book for a number for "home or mum & dad" and call them to let them know that the phone had been left in cab & they can collect from taxi office & thats what the driver did.

Couple of hours later two officers turned up at the office wanting to speak to the driver for "unauthorised use of phone & using credit without consent".

What a bitch, she reported the above to police.

Luckly the officers beleaved our story and that was the end of it.

[Grizz]

We had similar expirence with ASS law little while ago.

A customer left her mobile phone in the taxi, the driver called office and reported the phone as "found in car", as he did not know who it belonged to.

I told him to look though the phone book for a number for "home or mum & dad" and call them to let them know that the phone had been left in cab & they can collect from taxi office & thats what the driver did.

Couple of hours later two officers turned up at the office wanting to speak to the driver for "unauthorised use of phone & using credit without consent".

What a bitch, she reported the above to police.

Luckly the officers beleaved our story and that was the end of it.

no good turn goes unpunished so they say,

[Meat-Head]

Couple of hours later two officers turned up at the office wanting to speak to the driver for "unauthorised use of phone & using credit without consent".

What a bitch, she reported the above to police.

1) the call was to 'home' - so what does it matter
2) the next time a customer leaves there dog and bone in his cab, he is just going to pretend he didn't see it - let somebody else take it.
3) One would assume the driver had an address of where person lived
or what ever, send a load of junk mail to them.
4) funny how the fuzz were 'not busy' and was able to deal with the crime!
5) OFF TOPIC:-

But partly relevent, Daddy (before he died) was in town, see some lads
with a knife, rung local number, no answer, dialed 999, and he was on the phone to the fuzz (good job free call) for 16 mins, in tjis shop, out that
untill a pig car turned up!