Pregnant mom arrested at Safeway and loses custody of toddler over sandwiches
do you snack while shoping? i myself dont. i just find it odd to eat somthing that has not been paid for. but thats just me
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I might never again grab a granola bar for fuel during the grocery-shopping-with-kids trek. Not after reading the chilling story of a pregnant mother who, with her husband and daughter in tow, ordered two sandwiches at Safeway and ate one while she shopped. She ended up being arrested for shoplifting and temporarily losing custody of her toddler for an entire night.
The episode played out at a Honolulu Safeway last week and is just now hitting the national news.
According to today’s Associated Press story: “[Nicole] Leszczynski, 28, and her husband Marcin, 33, were handcuffed, searched then released on $50 bail each. Their ordeal at the police station lasted a few hours, but their daughter Zofia spent the night away from her parents.”
The mother later told a reporter: “It was the most ridiculous chain of events that happened,” she said while sobbing Monday. “It’s still hard to believe what happened.”
She went on:
“I didn’t want Zofia to be scared because she’s never spent a night away from us. She didn’t have her stuffed animal. She didn’t have her toothbrush.”
There did, in fact, seem to be a crime. When Leszczynski checked out, she did not pay for the sandwiches, though she later said she intended to pay and had saved the wrapper from the sandwich counter to do just that.
I have found myself in this situation countless times. I am that mom. Cart full, aisles crowded, trying to remember if we need breadcrumbs or if I’m on snack duty this week while half-paying attention to my whiny and grabby girls.
I try to appease them with snacks fresh off the shelves and do my best to save the wrappers for checkout. Sometimes I grab a snack for me, too. (We do it so often, the girls even know which store offers which shopping treat: In Trader Joe’s it’s the fruit strips; in Target it’s protein bars; in Safeway it’s rice cakes.)
Plus, many of us who’ve been pregnant know those intense hunger pangs can come on fast and vicious. If food doesn’t come quick, than a fainting spell will.
The problem here was not in the eating-while-shopping. It was in the no-paying. None of the mitigating factors justify shop-lifting, especially in a case where there seemed to be two adults involved.
But the reaction was clearly overkill. Officials repeatedly told the family they were “following policy” as the situation grew more and more absurd. Grocery store officials said they never intended for the child to be taken away; police said it is standard procedure for child welfare officials to swoop in when parents are arrested.
To arrest these parents was ridiculous in the first place. Far worse, for the police to remove a child from those parents because of two sandwiches when there is real neglect in this world is unconscionable.
Safeway officials have said they will review the case, according to the AP. While they’re at it, perhaps the store might provide some sensitivity training for employees.
Lesson one: Walk a mile in a pregnant mom’s grocery-shopping shoes and see if you don’t forget a thing or two.
Lesson two: Have a child and when she’s a toddler watch officials come and yank her away from you for the night. See if remorse doesn’t turn to rage.
I remember reading this a while ago.
I do sometimes snack while shopping. I don't see a big deal if I'm going to pay for it anyway....
True story though--one time, my mom and I were at wal-mart, and she asked if I'd buy her one of those reese's easter egg candies. I said sure, so she ate it while we were shopping. Went to pay, and for whatever reason, my debit card wouldn't work. Neither of us had cash, and it was a sunday, so the bank wasn't open to go get money. We didn't even have the 50 cents or whatever to pay for that damn reese's egg! The cashier was really nice though, she paid for it, lol!
see thats why i dont lol we dont carry cash, and have never had an issue with our card but you just never know! lolgood thing you had a nice cashier!
Quoting sissyboogs:I remember reading this a while ago.
I do sometimes snack while shopping. I don't see a big deal if I'm going to pay for it anyway....
True story though--one time, my mom and I were at wal-mart, and she asked if I'd buy her one of those reese's easter egg candies. I said sure, so she ate it while we were shopping. Went to pay, and for whatever reason, my debit card wouldn't work. Neither of us had cash, and it was a sunday, so the bank wasn't open to go get money. We didn't even have the 50 cents or whatever to pay for that damn reese's egg! The cashier was really nice though, she paid for it, lol!
Very true. I learned my lesson. Now we only snack if I know I'm paying in cash, or at least have cash on me, lol.
Quoting SimplyErathy:see thats why i dont lol we dont carry cash, and have never had an issue with our card but you just never know! lolgood thing you had a nice cashier!
Quoting sissyboogs:I remember reading this a while ago.
I do sometimes snack while shopping. I don't see a big deal if I'm going to pay for it anyway....
True story though--one time, my mom and I were at wal-mart, and she asked if I'd buy her one of those reese's easter egg candies. I said sure, so she ate it while we were shopping. Went to pay, and for whatever reason, my debit card wouldn't work. Neither of us had cash, and it was a sunday, so the bank wasn't open to go get money. We didn't even have the 50 cents or whatever to pay for that damn reese's egg! The cashier was really nice though, she paid for it, lol!
Me, too. It always feel like I'd be stealing it and then saying, "But here, let me pay for it - that'll make it okay!" You can't get away with any other crime by making amends for it afterward, so why this? IDK... Maybe that's an extreme view, but that's how I'd feel if I did it. I'd be checking over my shoulder constantly to see if the store's rent-a-cop was following me, lol.
Quoting Tammi4:
I never do. I feel it is wrong to eat or drink something before it's paid for.
I read this awhile ago and I felt no pity for her, the child yes but not the mother or father. I have NEVER eaten food in a store that was not paid for. That is shoplifting. If someone needs a snack that bad or if your kid is screaming for crackers, walk up to the cash register and pay for it then you eat it. Just my opinion and do not want to get jumped on for it. If you choose to do something that could potentially get you in trouble then deal with the consequences.
Happy Memorial Day.
- SimplyErathy
on Feb. 23, 2012 at 12:35 AM