Baby steals for 65 cents in the store - now threatens the mom jail!
It was eight months ago that the young mother was shopping with her baby in a shop of a drugstore chain near Hanover. She had then put their purchases on the booklet - but her baby Vincent had apparently a hair conditioner (price: 0.65 euros) in the stroller "hidden", as reported by Focus Online.
A shop detective addressed the young mother - and was merciless. If he could search the car, he asked, according to Focus. Of course Nora A. agreed - she had nothing to hide. But then the angry awakening: The detective fished the hair conditioner from the stroller, the baby Vincent in the footmuff of the car in his hands.
The direct consequences for the young mother: 75 Euro penalty and house ban in all branches of the drugstore chain.
But it got even worse: As the report goes on, Nora A. now, more than half a year later, got mail from the district court: For the shoplifting she should pay a penalty of 20 daily rates of 10 euros - or alternatively 20 days in jail! She also has to pay 70 euros for imposing the alternative sentence and 3.50 euros for registered mail.
"I'm stunned that I've got another punishment now, but unfortunately I can not prove that my son took the conditioner, so I have to stick to it now," Nora A. told Focus Online.
What does the lawyer say?
Must all mothers now be afraid of confessional punishment with grabbing babies?
We asked Nina Straßner, lawyer and author of the blog Juramama.de, what she thinks of the story.
She says: "The legal rule is that children up to 14 are not convicted, a 7-month-old baby certainly does not, but here the mother has the duty of supervision, so she is liable in this particular case because the baby is so small that she should not let it out of sight .. Legally, the supermarket had the possibility 'criminal complaint' and or criminal charges to make because of theft of a low-value thing under § 243a StGB. "
Once a criminal complaint has been filed, the supermarket can no longer take it back. "It is up to the prosecution to decide whether to disregard prosecution under Section 153 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which it can do if the offender's guilt is low or there is no public interest in prosecution and then simply postpone it without any action or instructions. This is the sticking point, which the prosecution has probably not made.What is actually surprising in view of the value of the thing, the 'culprit' and that she has probably already paid 75 euros to the supermarket. "
So, if history really happened like that, Nora A. was just unlucky - with very meticulous prosecutors.
