CORINTH, Maine — A local homeless teenager broke into the AE Robinson convenience store on Main Street early Monday and after grabbing some food and energy drinks, he left.
Donald Page, 19, then returned to the store to call police and wait for them to arrive, Deputy Mark Lloyd of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.
“He took some energy drinks, Slim Jims, cigarettes and tobacco, leaves and then comes back and calls 911 from the store to say, ‘Come get me,’” the deputy said, describing Page as homeless.
Page was arrested and charged with felony burglary and theft at about 3 a.m. and taken to the Penobscot County Jail in Bangor, a jail official said.
The burglar broke a glass pane on the door to get inside the store, manager Lynette Kroemer, said Monday morning. Kroemer, who is a grandmother with grandchildren the same age as Page, said her heart ached when she saw the condition of the burglar on the store’s video surveillance cameras.
“If you could see the video, it would break your heart,” she said.
The store manager said Page took “very little. It has got to be under $50.”
Page, who faced up to 10 years in prison for each of the felony theft and felony burglary charges, entered a guilty plea in court Monday afternoon to a reduced charge of misdemeanor theft and agreed to pay restitution.
Superior Court Justice William Anderson sentenced the teenager to 30 days in jail and ordered that he pay $31 in restitution to the store.
Sounds like it was done so that he would have a consistent roof over his head. If that is the case, I hope the prosecutor and judge see that, and help him into programs that will actually HELP this young man.
I’m glad that this young man chose to plead guilty, and that he was only
convicted of misdemeanor charges. I hope he sees this second chance as
the GIFT that it is, and doesn’t squander it away as so many before him have. I also hope he finds a program that can help him get off the
street.
Sounds like a candidate for job corps. We help other troubled youths from other states with the job corps program why not this person?
you can not enter Job Corps with criminal charges pending
Hopefully, he has a juvenile probation officer who can help him resolve the matter so he may be able to qualify.
This is a truly sad state of America. No young person like this should be homeless and sees prison as his only alternative to sleeping under a bridge. And facing 10 years for stealing some slim jims? The CEO’s of the “too big to fail banks” are still walking around free, ready to steal from us again.
There is no real justice in America in the year 2012. Not for anyone who is unlucky enough to be born into the serf class instead of the 1%.
Right, all hope is lost except for the 1%.
*rolls eyes*
No, all hope is not lost in this country. But the growing disparity – mostly, for me, of people being not equal under the law – is affecting a huge segment of people. America has more people in prison than any other country in the world. We have a penal system that has no problem putting minorities and the poor through it’s grinder . The royalty pay into the System that is set up to help them remain above the law with no real consequences. The Old Boys Network is real and it has a lively life for the top few in America.
It goes against the American grain. We are supposed to all be equal under the law. But ‘does’ is a long way from ‘supposed to’.
you are so right Narthwoods….there is no justice in America….the rich don’t pay for their crimes and the poor pay too much…..
Still amazes me to see someone turn a story about a local criminal stealing snack food into a conspiracy. Secondly comparing modern day individuals in the US to a historic class such as “serfs” is pointless and radical. Passports are cheap, unlike the serfs of ancient times you have to option to leave. I hear Canada is nice. Stop whining.
Walmart calls their workers “Peasant’s”. They call the one’s who die and make them tons of money “Dead Peasant’s”. Not sure how that fits in here, but somehow I feel its appropriate.
I hear what your saying narthwoods but this young man’s problem may have nothing to do with a bad economic situation. He may be mentally ill or is trying to escape a terrible family situation. Who knows? It does look like he’s crying out for help and I truely hope he finds it. I’ll probably get critisized for saying this but there are a lot of people involved in our judicial system that really care about people like this young man but the lack of resources make it extremely difficult to deal with some things. A good example of this is the fact that our jails are packed full of people who should be in a mental institution receiving mental health care and not left on their own to wander the streets.
If he would have beat people nearly to death, he would have gotten out of it a lot better. Our justice system sucks. My heart goes out to the poor kid. What he did was wrong, but he was obviously very hungry and tired.
Crazy world…Bush/Obama can slaughter thousands and steal their oil and property and everyone thinks what a wonderful thing…..but steal $50 bucks worth of stuff and get a possible ten years…..Makes some sort of sense I guess
Right, this type of activity should be encouraged. And legal.
*rolls eyes*
Nobody is saying what he did was right. What is being said is that it’s very sad that he felt this was his only option.
What makes this a felony? 50 dollars or the fact that he chose slim jims. This is ridiculous.
Burglary is a felony. Burglary is the act of breaking into a dwelling or structure with the intent to commit another crime within. In this case the other crime was theft of the merchandise. Thats why its a burglary.. Maybe question why this guy is stupid enough to break into a store for snack food instead of questioning a judicial system that you obviously know nothing about.
Should he have broken into a persons house instead, is that a better idea? Did you not deduce from the article that he was likely starving to death? Did you not see he is a homeless kid? Do you not know the store will write off the losses and insurance will pay for damage? Do you think he just decided in a moments notice that was a good idea or perhaps it was a calculated decision? Maybe you should question why he resorted to such extreme measures to survive instead of being a self-righteous bigot.
Thanks for clearing that up BangorNorth. No, I don’t have much clue when it comes to that stuff as I keep my (censored) clean. Thanks to DevilDude too, at least he sees it for what it really is. If we based everything on law, where would our morale be? If a law is unjust, it isn’t a law at all. That is something the judicial system is not up to par on. Either way, thanks for the info.
Basically what BangorNorth is saying is: Its a felony because the law says so and what the law says goes, no matter how absolutely morally corrupt it might be…. He coulda taken a single package of .25 cent gum and he would have committed Felony Burglary. Sad. I doubt he knew exactly how the law read. I am assuming he thought: Im starving to death and homeless. If I go take just a few things and turn myself in, maybe ill get punished slightly and then get some help. I doubt he knew that it doesn’t matter what you steal, only that you do. Hopefully he gets a judge with some sense of compassion and who’s not some neo-con nut job intent on throwing the book at him for up to 20 years.
One of Les Miserables.
Well, at least he will have three hots and a cot. And hopefully, someone in the system who can help him find a better way to find food and shelter.
my guess is the the store had a small postal station in it….that would make it a felony……
Pretty bad state of affairs when you have to choose to go ot jail in order to get out of the waether and get some food in your guts. Crime isn’t right, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do in order to survice.