From Bar Code To Behind Bars

A 19 year old college student in Boulder Colorado is in trouble with the law after he used his home computer to print phony bar codes. The Student, Jonathan Baldino, is in hot water after he downloaded a program that allows people to enter information to print a bar code. He then went to a Target and got bar codes for cheap items which he then reproduced on stickers. Jonathan then went to the store and put the stickers on expensive items. He was nabbed by store security after he was rung up for a pair of $4.99 headphones instead of the $150 the iPod he was purchasing actually cost.

In his statement to the police he wrote:

“I will NEVER EVER DO THIS EVER AGAIN and I am once more terribly sorry,” Baldino wrote in a statement for police. “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!”

I am waiting for the Hollyweird crowd to start protesting the police in Boulder for this man’s release. This guy is 19 years old so his claim that “I am just a kid” does not hold water. We hold our 19 year old soldiers acoountable for their deeds under the toughest pressure imaginable, we can hold this thief accountable as well. The police said that once this guy got to college he did not have any money so he looked for a way to reduce the prices. His pleas lack credibility because if he had not been caught he would have continued to rob the store. He tried this earlier and bought an iPod for one-tenth of the price.

This case does not involve some poor starving person who only stole food to survive (though I would not excuse that behavior). This is a man who calculated how to rip-off a store. He even admitted that he looked for cashiers who appeared inexperienced and would not recognize the disparity in prices.

I think this man has serious issues. His follow-up statement to police included “I am extremely sad now and I just want to go to bed. Please let me sleep in my own bed tonight.” Here is a bit of Big Dog justice.

Charge him with the crime, try him, and if (when) found guilty:
Do not give him jail time.
Give him ten times the dollar amount he stole in community service hours.
Make part of those hours service time cleaning up the Target parking lot, store front, and bathrooms.
Do not allow him to use a computer until the community service is completed (except for school work).
Make him serve meals at shelters throughout the Christmas Season.
Do not allow him to leave the state until the service is completed.
Put him on probation for 5 years.

Maybe he will get the message that crime does not pay.

Read it here.

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