One free crime!

Super Policeman Mike catches bad guys with 1,375 POUNDS OF MARIJUANA. Cheech and Chong couldn’t even claim that was for personal use, so they were obviously big dealers.  So of course they go to prison for a really long time, right?   Not exactly:

It has been nearly 2 years since I seized this jackpot of green-ness. Know what the perps got for it? Probation and $5,000 fines! Pathetic!

That’s sad, but I’m not surprised.  I run an Internal Audit group.  We catch people stealing thousands of dollars of cash and/or property and they get no jail time plus an interest free loan — i.e., they pay back part of what they stole over time, but if they can’t afford to pay it back there are no consequences. 

One thief was a convicted felon who we fired after an external agency informed us of his record.  Turns out his record was past some sort of arbitrary time limit so he sued and we hired him back.  His repayment for our employment of him was to steal as much as he possibly could. And after his arrest he threatened physical harm to employees at the company.  Not exactly a serious case of repentance. 

Did he do time?  Nope, once again the prior felony was too old to hold against him.  Will he pay back the money?  Doubtful.  The sentence will require it but all he’ll have to do is claim he can’t afford it and he’ll be off the hook.

You really don’t want the public to know that you get one big “free” theft before you see any jail time! 

Please pretend you never read this post.