Couple Gets Sentenced to 40 Hours of Community Service For Stealing $5 Pumpkin

There’s petty theft and then there are petty criminal charges. Two college students in New Mexico were definitely subjected to the second after being charged with the first. It all started with a date to a pumpkin patch last October between Lauren Medina and Matt Schindele to an area pumpkin patch.

After touring the pumpkin patch, the pair each walked off with a pumpkin. The two gourds were valued at around $10 total, and the pair claim that they though the pumpkins were included in the price of admission. They were wrong, and they were arrested for shoplifting.

After a two hour bench trial – yes, two hours – a judge found the pair guilty and sentenced them to 40 hours of community service and they had to pay the court fees amounting to $73 each. Why the trial lasted for 2 hours and why this whole issue wasn’t solved back in October by simply paying for the merchandise is hard to grasp. In the end, the judge said the value of the merchandise stolen wasn’t relevant. It was the principle that mattered.

In an even more comical twist, Medina and Schindele plan on getting an appeals attorney to appeal the judge’s decision. They have 15 days to file their appeal.

We’d like to say that we will keep you posted with any updates on this case, but it is so ridiculous that we almost feel bad spending more time on the story.

What do you think? Did the punishment fit the crime?