“I will NEVER EVER DO THIS EVER AGAIN and I am once more terribly sorry… Please let me go for I am terribly sorry!!! I’m only a kid! Help me out. I just want to go home. I did this not knowing of the serious penalty that lies behind it. Please! Please! Please!” —Jonathan Baldino —Swiping goes high-tech in bar-code scam (Denver Post)
Defense Attorney: As you can see, Your Honor, my client used all caps for portions of his statement, and used three exclamation marks in a row.
Judge: Well golly… then HE MUST BE TELLING THE TRUTH!!!
Defense Attorney: I would like to introduce into evidence this follow-up statement. “I am extremely sad now, and I just want to go to bed… Please let me sleep in my own bed tonight.”
Judge: What’s this? The criminal justice system has made someone sad?
Defense Attorney: Besides, who really expects a 19-year-old to know right from wrong?
Judge: You’re right. Case dismissed!!!
(Pause.)
(Judge and Defense Attorney burst out laughing.)
Defense Attorney (wiping his eyes): Man, they couldn’t make this stuff up in Hollywood. Okay. Let’s get back to work.
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I think this is an ingenuis use of technology. Yes granted it is a crime, but as was noted in the previous comment, no worse than any of the others that go on. This college student was by far being an original. The idea was faulty in that he was caught. My hat is tipped to the guy for taking what he learned in the classroom and trying to make it in the real world. I only wish he would have thought about the fact that oh the process was completely illegal.
This strikes me a just being an updated version of switching the old style price tags on something. That's why those tags have the little slits cut into them. It makes them difficult to remove in one piece and place on another item. Just because there are barcodes and databases involved doesn't make it a more serious crime. Chrage him accordingly, and let the justice system do its work.