Woman accused of stealing mice
Seen in today’s local paper:
A Johnstown woman was jailed after authorities said she tried to steal several small animals from a local pet store.
City police said Jennifer Lauren Jury, 42, of Broad Street, entered Animal Jack’s Pet Shop on Fifth Street on Monday and made her way to the second floor.
As Jury came downstairs and tried to leave the store, an employee noticed three hamsters and two mice in her purse.
“I could see them crawling out of her purse,” the employee said.
When the employee confronted her, Jury took the animals out of her purse and left the store, police said.
Jury was found at her residence, where police said she admitted she had been arrested for retail theft twice before.
Jury was charged with retail theft and arraigned by District Judge Michael Musulin of Johstown. She was sent to the Cambria County Prison after failing to post $5,000 bond.
The hamsters and mice were valued at $4, police said.
The story prompts numerous thoughts:
- Why was she held on $5,000 bond for a $4 stealing misdemeanor?
- Why did the paper bother writing this up at all, especially as a real news story?
- Why are there so many one-sentence paragraphs? It’s really distracting!
- If you want to steal small animals from a pet store, make sure you zip your purse.
November 26th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
1. It’s usual these days to overprice bonds, even for misdemeanors.
2. Well, it was funny, so maybe it was a feature, and maybe the writer had some spare time, and the paper had a space to fill.
3. The paragraphs are without depth, and they like paragraphs separating separate ideas.
4. Agreed.
November 26th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
> Why was she held on $5,000 bond for a $4 stealing misdemeanor?
Is there any sort of 3-strikes law involved? That might be why it’s the third time…
> Why did the paper bother writing this up at all, especially as a real news story?
Slow news day? This is the sort of thing people want to read about? Honestly, this is par for the course for a lot of papers, national as well as local. :(
> Why are there so many one-sentence paragraphs? It’s really distracting!
Also pretty typical for web content. Has to do with the Really Narrow columns they try to stick it all in, and then making the paragraphs not have too many lines in that little jail.
A lot of BBC articles have similar issues, for example. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7751160.stm is pretty typical (and the paragraphs are exactly one sentence, for the most part). If you want distracting, try the print versions of both articles. They really show off the inanity.
Overall conclusion: Most papers are not worth reading, online or off.
November 26th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
> Why did the paper bother writing this up at all, especially as a real news story?
Well, for the same reasons you had to report the fact: because the story is unusual, and the news paper wanted to attract the eye of some reader, as you did.
> Why was she held on $5,000 bond for a $4 stealing misdemeanor?
While I can understand an high bond for a crime, to discourage the act (if everyone would steal mices the pet store would fail ) , what makes me worry is the fact that people risk prison for such minor theft. Is this justice? Will the woman be a better person after such hard punishment ?
December 1st, 2008 at 11:00 pm
> If you want to steal small animals from a pet store, make sure you zip your purse.
Or just bring the anaconda in with you.