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"Woman arrested for salvaging perfectly good food dumped on street corner"

Wolfe Tone

"When Sasha Hall, a 21-year-old woman from England, was approached by police officers for trying to salvage some of the 3,000 pounds of perfectly-good food that had been dumped on the street following a power outage at a Tesco grocery story, she had no idea that she would later be arrested at her home for it. Police tracked the woman down after she had taken the goods and charged her with “theft by finding,” despite the fact that the food was just sitting on the curbside in bags for anyone to take.

“It had been thrown out, so I thought I could put it to better use,” Hall told reporters. “I would think the police have better things to be doing with their time than going after people who pick up potato waffles from the street. It’s all been blown totally out of proportion.”

During a time when oil and food prices are skyrocketing and millions of people are without employment, Hall makes a very good point. And the scenario was not a typical one involving expired food that had simply been discarded in the store’s dumpster after going out of date, which is a common practice among grocery chains. The vast majority of the food in this case was literally just sitting on the curb following the unexpected power outage.

Ironically, Tesco’s motto is “Every Little Helps,” but apparently salvaging perfectly good food from a curbside does not apply. The chain would rather have a ton-and-a-half of ham, pies, and other goodies needlessly rot than to allow individuals to put the food to good use. Due to the unique circumstances of the event, the company could have at least chosen to donate the food to local charities or homeless shelters, say critics."

http://aftermathnews.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/woman-arrested-for-salvaging-perfectly-good-food-dumped-on-street-corner/

Another source:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0224/1224290733484.html

Hopefully there isnt another thread on this!

I read this earlier and I was disgusted, the food was dumped, destined to be burned, and she was arrested for taking it? Absolute joke.

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Run_to_da_hills

Cops were right to arrest her.

She was rummaging through a dumpster for food that was condemned by supermarket management.

What if rats had pissed all over the packaging and food risking spreading weil's disease on to her kids?

She can count herself lucky that welfare has not taken her kids away.

RichieC

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Cops were right to arrest her.

She was rummaging through a dumpster for food that was condemned by supermarket management.

What if rats had pissed all over the packaging and food risking spreading weil's disease on to her kids?

She can count herself lucky that welfare has not taken her kids away.

:rolleyes:

mlumley

The woman in question has an arguement against the charge. If the food was thrown out and not wanted by the owner, she can take it. Theft by finding is if you drop something on the street and someone picks it up and keeps it, that is theft by finding. How do I know. My solisitor sucsesfuly argued it after I took something from a skip and was charged with theft by finding. Mind you, she has to get Tesco to say no they didnot want it and was throwing it away.

jackiebaron

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Cops were right to arrest her.

She was rummaging through a dumpster for food that was condemned by supermarket management.

What if rats had pissed all over the packaging and food risking spreading weil's disease on to her kids?

She can count herself lucky that welfare has not taken her kids away.

Now that's a bit of a stretch. Maybe if you think hard enough you can get her done for domestic terrorism.

themadchef

dollyk wrote: »

They dont like you to take food that has been binned , because if you get sick, because you refroze it, or become ill you can still sue the store.

I remember freezers going down in Dunnes years ago in the stores. Binned it all.... I was horrified and threy used the above line... Still asked me if i wanted any for the canteen though :pac:

jackiebaron

themadchef wrote: »

I remember freezers going down in Dunnes years ago in the stores. Binned it all.... I was horrified and threy used the above line... Still asked me if i wanted any for the canteen though :pac:

I would have gladly taken the lot to the canteen and cooked it all...just fire it all into the oven....practise my culinary skills on all the meat and fish. Then just give it away once it's cooked. It can be refrozen then.

themadchef

jackiebaron wrote: »

I would have gladly taken the lot to the canteen and cooked it all...just fire it all into the oven....practise my culinary skills on all the meat and fish. Then just give it away once it's cooked. It can be refrozen then.

Why do you think giving it away cooked makes it less likely people will sue you for food poisoning? I asked why they didint give it to St Vincent De Paul etc... Point is even if you nuked it the "claim" issue doesn't go away

These were the store freezers btw, bigger than shop floor ones and there musta been a whole skip of food wasted. Staff didint even take it home (as far as i could see anyway). Crying shame but the managers were following protocol (or so they said)

kumate_champ07

dollyk wrote: »

They dont like you to take food that has been binned , because if you get sick, because you refroze it, or become ill you can still sue the store.

no they say that they dont want people do take out of date food because they can be sued, it's nothing to do with it being in a bin. thats why they throw it in a bin. if someone takes the 'perished' food from a rubbish bin its not really a crime

I know that M&S in Newbridge Kildare would spray bleach into the bags of food, like fuit&veg, bread, pastries and cookies, then throw them in a skip out back

phantom_lord

If there had been something wrong with the food and she had suffered would there have been any liabilty on the part of tesco?

Wolfe Tone

phantom_lord wrote: »

If there had been something wrong with the food and she had suffered would there have been any liabilty on the part of tesco?

You should start a thread over on the legal issues forum, much more likely to get an informed answer there mate.

melekalikimaka

extremely dangerous robbing binned goods, the woman must have been fierce desperate, so pity for her, but there are laws in place to stop this happening for good reason, a friend who works for meat distributors explained this to me, details not exactly but I do believe the shop gets in alot of trouble for letting folk take the meat even for free

StupidLikeAFox

The woman has a fairly rock solid defence. "Finders keepers, losers weepers"

Wolfe Tone

melekalikimaka wrote: »

extremely dangerous robbing binned goods, the woman must have been fierce desperate, so pity for her, but there are laws in place to stop this happening for good reason, a friend who works for meat distributors explained this to me, details not exactly but I do believe the shop gets in alot of trouble for letting folk take the meat even for free

The food wasnt out of date or anything, they could have just given it away.

melekalikimaka

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

The food wasnt out of date or anything, they could have just given it away.

well there was clearly something wrong with it that the shop felt it was too risky to sell in their store, so at a loss to them they threw it away in the interest of public health...only for some opportunist to take it

jackiebaron

themadchef wrote: »

Why do you think giving it away cooked makes it less likely people will sue you for food poisoning? I asked why they didint give it to St Vincent De Paul etc... Point is even if you nuked it the "claim" issue doesn't go away

These were the store freezers btw, bigger than shop floor ones and there musta been a whole skip of food wasted. Staff didint even take it home (as far as i could see anyway). Crying shame but the managers were following protocol (or so they said)

Can you really sue someone if they GIVE you something that you are perfectly entitled to refuse? I mean if I was to give you a sandwich or a cigarette or a can of coke and it made you sick.....could you in all honesty find grounds to sue me? When you purchase it from me we enter a contract whereby I am providing you with a product and certain conditions apply. If I just give you something then it's a non-binding transaction. Like if I had an old car and I said to you "madchef, I've got this old banger that I'm going to scrap. She still runs. Dunno if anything's wrong but she's your's if you want." Can you really sue me if you crash the thing and injure yourself because the brakes were shot to shït?

Wolfe Tone

melekalikimaka wrote: »

well there was clearly something wrong with it that the shop felt it was too risky to sell in their store, so at a loss to them they threw it away in the interest of public health...only for some opportunist to take it

The power cut and the fridges went down that day. They were only down a short time. The food was fine.

jackiebaron

ColHol wrote: »

The woman has a fairly rock solid defence. "Finders keepers, losers weepers"

But it wasn't lost, it was dumped. If I take an old chair that I don't want anymore and leave it out on the pavement and someone decides "Ah, that'll do me" and takes the chair....have I "lost" the chair? Can they be done for "theft by finding" and can they sue me if they bring the chair home, sit on it and fall through the thing and break their bollocks?

My name is URL

melekalikimaka wrote: »

well there was clearly something wrong with it that the shop felt it was too risky to sell in their store, so at a loss to them they threw it away in the interest of public health...only for some opportunist to take it

They threw it away because of the public's dislike for food that doesn't fit a pre-held notion of what it should look like on a shelf. All supermarkets do this. They sell a small percentage of it at a discount but can only hold so much of it on the 'discount' aisle, and bin the rest.

They're not in the wrong for throwing it away either.. as people have said, even giving it away carries a risk of litigation. It's the laws surrounding the whole thing that suck. It should be changed so that anyone accepting the discarded food agrees to not hold the shops liable for any damages

melekalikimaka

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

The power cut and the fridges went down that day. They were only down a short time. The food was fine.

i know for a fact fridge downtime even for an hour can affect frozen goods, your making alot of assumptions here. why would they throw out the food otherwise?

melekalikimaka

My name is URL wrote: »

They threw it away because of the public's dislike for food that doesn't fit a pre-held notion of what it should look like on a shelf. All supermarkets do this. They sell a small percentage of it at a discount but can only hold so much of it on the 'discount' aisle, and bin the rest.

They're not in the wrong for throwing it away either.. as people have said, even giving it away carries a risk of litigation. It's the laws surrounding the whole thing that suck. It should be changed so that anyone accepting the discarded food agrees to not hold the shops liable for any damages

and what if the person dies, the blame will fall on the shop for providing the food, free or paid for

Wolfe Tone

melekalikimaka wrote: »

i know for a fact fridge downtime even for an hour can affect frozen goods, your making alot of assumptions here. why would they throw out the food otherwise?

They were packets of ham. Im sure they would be fine out of a fridge for a while.

jackiebaron

A lot of these supermarkets dump perfectly good stuff like broccolli, cabbages, grapefruits, apples, whatever because they are not of a uniform size compared to the rest of the stock. Perfectly fresh peppers, melons, onions get slung because they are a little smaller or a little bigger than the average.

My name is URL

melekalikimaka wrote: »

and what if the person dies, the blame will fall on the shop for providing the food, free or paid for

Not necessarily. If a person eats garbage from a council bin is the state responsible for whatever harm it causes?

melekalikimaka

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

They were packets of ham. Im sure they would be fine out of a fridge for a while.

oh yeah ham wouldnt go off in a wet bin bag on the corner of a street

Wolfe Tone

melekalikimaka wrote: »

oh yeah ham wouldnt go off in a wet bin bag on the corner of a street

When they copped the fridges were down they should have done something else rather than put them on the street.

Mr. Presentable

Woman arrested for stealing from bins

It's still not hers.

StupidLikeAFox

jackiebaron wrote: »

But it wasn't lost, it was dumped. If I take an old chair that I don't want anymore and leave it out on the pavement and someone decides "Ah, that'll do me" and takes the chair....have I "lost" the chair? Can they be done for "theft by finding" and can they sue me if they bring the chair home, sit on it and fall through the thing and break their bollocks?

Well the last time i used the finders keepers defence i was prob around 5 and dont recall any of those things happening.

Oh btw Im not a solicitor

jackiebaron

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

When they copped the fridges were down they should have done something else rather than put them on the street.

Aw FFS, Come on!!! If I leave a bag of old clothes in the street and someone comes along and helps themselves to whatever duds are in there and then they develop a friggin rash because their skin is sensitive to certain fibres....you think they can sue me? Can someone sue a shoe shop because the new shoes they BOUGHT there gave them heel and ankle blisters?
This debate is entering the twilight zone.

the_syco

phasers wrote: »

How could you sue the store? You pulled it out of their bins!

Once, a few years ago, a homeless person ate food that was given to the a charity meals place as it was just past it's sell-by date (as opposed to gone-off date). The homeless person got sick, as it wasn't kept correctly after the supermarket had given it to the charity meals place . You see, this was the done thing not so long ago: supermarkets would give stuff past it's sell-by date to the charity meals places to be given to the homeless.

Well, when this homeless person sued the supermarket, they won. And no food was ever given by supermarkets to charity meals places again.

And because of this same reason, the supermarket is suing her before she can sue them.

dannydiamond

Now, she is facing a charge of theft by finding for allegedly taking £215.16 of food, including 100 packs of ham

It's no wonder that she was arrested, that's intent to supply.

No way 100 packs of ham were for personal use.