Hawaii Receives Worldwide Negative Publicity for $5 Sandwich Fiasco
An expectant mother and father who moved to Hawaii from California just days ago were arrested in a Honolulu Safeway after forgetting to pay for a $5 sandwich. They had already purchased $50 worth of groceries but forgot to include the wrapper from a $5 sandwich that the pregnant 28 year old had eaten before walking out the door because she felt faint.
The couple’s arrest happened in front of their 2 year old daughter, who was then taken away from her parents for the first time by state social services, only to spend the next 18 hours with strangers but without her favorite stuffed animal or toothbrush.
The $5 sandwich fiasco has attracted worldwide news and isn’t showing Safeway, Hawaii’s law enforcement or child welfare services in a good light. The headline in the London Daily Mail today is “I got hysterical. I went to the bathroom and threw up’: Pregnant mother describes moment accidentally stealing a sandwich got her arrested and her daughter taken away”
The opening paragraphs: “A mother has spoken of the horrifying moment when a simple mistake of forgetting to pay for five-dollar sandwiches landed her and her husband in jail and their two-year-old daughter in state custody. Nicole Leszczynski, 28, who is 30 weeks pregnant, was arrested with her 33-year-old husband Marcin at the supermarket in Hawaii and taken to the police station, while their toddler Zofia spent her first ever night away from her parents in state care. Mrs Leszczynski, a former Air Force staff sergeant, said she tried to keep her composure until Zofia, who turns three in December, left the store. Separated: Nicole Leszczynski, who is 30 weeks pregnant, was arrested at a Honolulu supermarket and her daughter taken into care after she accidentally stole a five-dollar sandwich. She said: ‘I didn’t want Zofia to be scared because she’s never spent a night away from us. She didn’t have her stuffed animal. She didn’t have her toothbrush.” But as soon as her daughter left, the mother added: ‘I got completely hysterical. I went to the bathroom and threw up. It was the most ridiculous chain of events that happened. It’s still hard to believe what happened. Their ordeal has sparked nationwide outrage and forced the Safeway supermarket chain to review the incident. The family had moved to an apartment near downtown Honolulu from California two weeks ago.”
Susan Houghton, a spokesman for California-based Safeway Inc., told the London Daily Mail that the store chain is looking into the incident, is concerned about how it was handled and did not know the child would be taken away by the state. She also said the store could drop the charges but is looking into the incident first.
In the meantime, the Daily Mail reports that the family is banned from Safeway for a year, and is facing charges of fourth-degree theft, a petty misdemeanor, with a court date on November 28.
Most women who are pregnant complain that they have trouble focusing and remembering basic tasks at hand. She was obviously being tracked by security. Couldn’t anyone have shown her some Aloha, used some common sense and politely reminded her to pay for the sandwich before they used “got ya” tactics?
Quest for Obama’s Original Birth Certificate Continues
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is making waves across America again, this time for keeping his promise to do a thorough investigation of Barack Obama’s eligibility for the presidential ballot by examining his original Hawaiian birth certificate.
World Net Daily reports that he is raising questions that “touch on the authenticity of the long-form birth certificate issued last April and the possibility Obama is using a fraudulent Social Security Number.”
WND reports: “Sources close to the investigation say the posse has decided it needs to see original birth records before it can conclude whether Obama should be eligible for the presidential ballot in 2012, not an electronic file or scanned copies. The sources say the panel needs to examine the microfilm documenting Obama’s birth, as well as the ink-and-paper original 1961 birth records the Hawaii Department of Health is holding in its vault.”
The White House released Obama’s Hawaii birth certificate seen here on April 27, but Arpaio and his supporters say that is not good enough.
Hawaii Public Policy Series Features Nicole Kurokawa Neily, Executive Director of the Independent Women’s Forum and Clark Neily, Senior Attorney with the Institute for Justice
Nicole Kurokawa Neily, Executive Director of the Independent Women’s Forum and Clark Neily, Senior Attorney with the Institute for Justice, will be in Honolulu next week, where they will hold a special Hawaii Public Policy Review Series event in conjunction with Smart Business Hawaii and the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.
The event is November 8, 2011 from 7:30-9:30 AM. at the Pacific Club’s Cleghorn Room.
Clark’s topic of discussion is: “IJ Case Stories and How and Why They Take These No Fee Cases”, while Nicole will discuss the “History of Women in the Liberty Movement in America and How Government Hurts Women”.
The event fee is $25 per person. Mail checks to GRIH at 1314 S. King St. #1163 Honolulu, 96814 or Call 591-9193 to pay by credit card.
[…] as was asked in the Hawaii Reporter : “Couldn’t anyone have shown her some […]
well no, otherwise Hawaii would be renamed the Sandwich Isles.
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