Safeway Arrests pregnant woman who forgot to pay for a sandwich & they put her toddler in foster house?

let's put things into the right perspective here:

Crime= Forgetting to pay for a 5$ worth of snadwiches

Punishment= Handcuffs, one night in jail, taking your child away for the whole night and putting her with total strangers.

Do the math people, and the result would be= total safeway manager, security and police bull$hit. The same bull$it we see everyday, and why this is happening because people like the ones here defedning this outrage do exist!

Sosumi, Ladycatherine and the other one with the long nickname: YOU ARE saying that it's OK to take a child away from his parents for a whole scary night, during which she wouldn't have stopped crying, accompanied with the trauma and confusion and not knowing what will happen to her and her parents, and only God knows what those at the foster house did to her as she is the "child of thieves", right ladies out there defending this $hit??!!!

Logic, math, and like a previous answer said, compassion, yeah!

I am now more convinced of boycotting those Supermarkets.

Ladycatherine: Are you servious?! I bet you didn't even read the details.

- It was a mistake (no intension of stealing as they were eating it openely and kept the wrap)

- The woman is pregnant, she needs to eat when she's hungry, her baby cannot wait until she finishes shopping, she has to eat right there.

- they bought a 50 $ worth of stuff from the store and paid for everything

- The punishment included their daughter, who did notthing, and they kept her with foster house God knows what happened to her alone with those strangers that night.

- the law enforcment people need to be able to differentiate when the intention for a crime is there and when it's an honest mistake, and us citizen need to make them pay for any cruelty and injustice done!

To answer the question: this is injustice, I would sue the Supermarket to the last dime, I would sue the police officer who took the toddler, and I would make the manager pay for the rest of her/his life.

That's just me. But it didn't happen to me, thank God, so all I can do is actually boycott those bastards for one reason: when you're training your staff to handle customers they should remember they are dealing with human beings who deserve respect and their choosing to shop at Safeway shouldn't be rewarded by jail time and children taken away (not even for 10 minutes!).

How do they learn? because they only speak the language of money, they should learn with the language of money: how about costing them losses of millions by boycotting them??! that should teach the bastards!

@Sosumi: Your keyword is priorities, right? and oh, what was that word too: they should pay for being lazy.

So when was a 5$ a priority over a human being's dignity and right for respect? where is the priority of preventing child abuse (yes that was child abuse commited by your dearest Safeway supermarket), and don't you dare say that the parents are neglecting or lazy because they forgot, I bet you've never forgotten ANYTHING in your entire perfect Life???!!!!!!!

I like the suggestion of soconfused, it said Karma is awaiting, and one day you're bound to find yourself in trouble (bound because you are only human, you're not God), and when that happens to you, any kind of mistake you'll make will be taken against you thousands of times more, and don't wonder then why this is happening to you, try to remember that once you saw a brother or a sister in distress and what you did? you stood on your high heels applauding to their abusers!

@ I miss summer 2009: right missy, stealing is wrong, but honest mistakes do happen, and when it happens people should learn how to treat people in a human way!

The key word here is "compassion" and "the human dignity" people are so self righteous nowadays that they've become pure machines, mechanics. We are full of **** people and we believe that by following the rules blindly we're being perfect!! that's what's wrong with our society.

All those who are "preaching" of how wrong it is steal, I beg you spare us from your self righteousness and your high standards Perfect ladies! we don't need that in this ****** up society, we need some compassion, some human beings around, not machines. And you used to criticize the Soviet Union or some countries that would cut the hand of a thief, wow! I bet you'd make the greatest dictators there! You might not be christian, but, as a christian myself, Thank God, Jesus told me to be compasionate with my brother, the human being, no matter what wrong was made, when possible, because I myself am not perfect.

"Sosumi", "Ladycatherine", and "I miss summer 2009" look down deep inside, and be true to yourselves: haven't you ever told a llie? haven't you ever done anything wrong in your life? how is all your **** and blunders are forgiveable and forgetting to pay for a sandwich is a serious crime that deserves such a harsh punishment????!!!

@ Sosumi and Ladycatherine: I suggest you get off your high heals you 58536??!!!!!! haven't you ever fogotten anything in your stupid righteous lives?! it's not like they did it on purpose!

Gush! What happened to the world? I am pregnant and I sometimes need to drink when I'm shopping, I just keep the bottle. If I don't drink or eat when I'm dizzy I lose conscience. I would sue that supermarket for brutal acts leading to emotional distress and trauma.

I already made up my mind on boycotting those chains, and I spend there more than 100 $ at each visit! those evil people!

to Ladycatherine: you should learn how to spell "whether" before preaching about how wrong it is to steal, I bet the manager of the supermarket is someone just like you who forgets that we are humans, and honest mistakes do happen, and she just follows the rules because she has no common sense, no good judgment, she doesn't even want to take the risk or responsibility of a personal sensible judgment. That's the safest thing for her, rules are the rules, so why bother use our brains outside the box? the rules say we should cut the hand of the thief, so bring the scissors on!

Yeah I'm boycotting those bastards.

I agree with Sosumi. They could have prevented the entire ordeal by just paying for it in the first place. You sympathize with the parents, but imagine how much the store much lose every year due to these "mistakes?" I userstand that it was an honest mistake, but stealing is a big deal; it doesn't matter how much or how little. I disagree that they should be punished based on how Safeway is affected in that it was only $5. It was Safeway's sandwich, and those two parents carelessly forgot to pay for it. Safeway should not have to babysit its customers like this. Take responsibility to make sure you pay for things. Hopefully it is a lesson for all of us to be more careful and take things like these more seriously.

I think that couple was foolish and could have prevented the whole thing by either:

1. Paying at the deli counter first and holding onto the receipt. EVERY Safeway has at least 1 POS there.

2. Or not be little piggies and chowing down on food that wasn't theirs.

Being pregnant does not relegate you to golden calf status. The vast majority of us in our 3rd trimester can and do control hunger pangs. If you need to eat, you go pay for your own food like an adult. The store was following their procedure buy calling the cops. The cops were following procedure by calling CPS when the parents were taken into custody for STEALING. It's sad that the child had such selfish parents in the first place. Hopefully this will be a further deterrent to other trashy sorts that insisting on lunching in the middle of the isle before bothering to pay for their goods. They should take their business back to Walmart.

Actually, I don't forget to pay. What I want stays in the basket. When I care to take possession, I go to a POS. It's not rocket science. If your nutritional needs are so dire, go attend to them. THEN go do your shopping. Priorities; don't be afraid of them. This isn't a matter of being on a high horse. This is simple cause and effect. Don't pay for goods: go to jail. You'd be surprised how often retailers deal with people 'forgetting' to pay for their empty Triscuts or Vitamin Water on a daily basis. They take these actions because of lazy people like this couple. Whatever their intention was is irrelevant to the retailer. The had a chance to pay and didn't. This is a lesson in personal responsibility and ethics for the parents.

I just read that on cafemom.com!

That is so terrible. She offered to pay for the food but they still took her to jail!

Her poor child!

weather you like it or not,, stealing is stealing, and the circumstances around it, should/would not matter,, yes, she was pregnant, yes, didn't it say that daddy was a vet..? and yes, they had their daughter with them, BUT stealing is stealing.. the "i forgot' does not and should not ever be used in any case..