Once you pop...you get locked up?
Pringles are, as my friend put it, a "premium chip". They are the best of the potato chip bunch. They have a distinct texture and flavors and, of course, they have the iconic can.
That can is apparently not something to be messed with and one pregnant woman found that out the hard way. She can spend the next two months thinking about it in jail.
Obviously the vast majority of us don't open something from the grocery store until we've paid for it, but there are times we make exceptions. For small purchases, like a bottle of soda or maybe a small bag of chips, a customer can open them and not get in trouble until they try to make off without paying. Or so Kathleen McDonagh probably thought.
McDonagh, 24, walked into a local grocery store near her Irish home to get some chips, but there were a couple of problems. One, she had been banned from that store, two, she has 14 prior convictions of theft and three, security was there asking for her to leave.
McDonagh really wanted Pringles though, and picked up a can. She was told she wouldn't be allowed to pay for them - so she opened them. She was then arrested for damaging property.
"She removed the foil top and she said 'I opened it so you have to let me pay for it,'" Inspector Ronan Kennelly told the court.
The can of Pringles cost €1.50 or $1.71 USD.
It seems minor, and despite her previous convictions for theft, it looks like McDonagh had every intention of paying for the chips.
Theft, however, was not on Judge Brian O'Shea's mind. He sentenced her to four months in prison with half the sentence suspended. He said during sentencing that he can't view her actions as anything less than "smart-alec behavior."
Her lawyer's tried to plead for leniency since McDonagh is recently married and pregnant, but the request was unfulfilled. Activists from around Ireland are complaining about the harsh sentence, claiming community service has been proven to be a better alternative for non-violent crimes.
[HT: NewsHub]
It will remain to be seen if they can change the outcome, but for now it looks like one woman will be spending Christmas in a jail cell - all because she opened a can of Pringles.
