On Monday afternoon, June 27, local authorities arrested a woman because she was caught stealing coupons from a number of Sunday newspapers.
The woman, identified as Sybil Hobson, 37-years old and a resident of Denton, Texas, was arrested and charged with fraudulent destruction by the local authorities. Prior to the woman’s arrest, the police were already doing an investigation based on information forwarded by a man who had been hired by a vendor. The hired man was to watch for possible coupon stealing on the newsstands. This kind of coupon theft has been giving newspaper vendors a problem, as Sunday newspapers that do not have coupon inserts do not get sold.
According to a police report, the man who forwarded the information to them said that he saw a woman driving a Cadillac SUV stop at two vending racks. The woman put in money for a Sunday newspaper, but then removed all the coupon inserts from all the newspapers in the rack. When the woman was approached and told by the man that what she had done had been reported to the police, she went into her car and then drove away. She was still unable to avoid being caught though, as a clear description of her was given to the police, allowing for her identification.
Hobson is currently facing a Class A offense, which has a fine of up to $4,000 and is punishable by jail of up to a year. Hobson was originally charged with a Class C offense, however, detectives changed the charge to a more serious one after consulting with the county’s Office of the District Attorney.
Well gen that is not true at all. Using coupons combined with sales will save you a lot more money and buy you a lot better product. Why buy generic products when Name brand are so much cheaper. The dumb ones are the ones that choose to pay full retail.
I am very happy to see something being done about this hugh problem. Inserts are not safe anywhere. Even in the store's the inserts are taken. Now that DMN's puts all the inserts in the plastic bags, it just makes it easier to take.
Make an example out of this one. Maybe the stealing will stop. If she can afford to drive a Cad SUV then she can afford to pay for her coupons just like the rest of us.
Good god its only a coupon, why bother with stealing it? I usually throw away coupons because they always have minimum purchase or some catch with it, i rather buy generic groceries that are cheaper and just the same in quality.
That lady is foolish, but I don't really see it as stealing since she did pay for it, the newspaper that is taking this like a criminal charge is stupid for taking these things so seriously, instead of hiring an investigator why don't they just upgrade their newspaper stand's design so that it only dispense one paper at a time? The comments from people taking this problem so seriously are also rather dumb, if you really want o save money just buy generic or in bulks and you can save a lot more than coupons.
You don't save more with buying generic! Using coupons gets you free products. You can't buy generic cereal for 50 cents a box but you can buy name brand cereal for 50 cents a box when using coupons. Can you get generic deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, or body wash for free when buying generic? NO you can't, but you can get them for free when using coupons. You don't have to be an extreme couponer to get things for free or next to nothing. I only buy one paper and use only the coupons that come in that one paper and I can buy $400 worth of groceries for $100 and only spend $8 a month in newspapers. Can you save that much with generic? NO!! The reason they are charging people that steal inserts is that people do not buy the paper unless the coupons are in them. The newspaper companies are losing a lot of money and they are already struggling financially.
You are so wrong, I have gotten many items FREE, and a lot of stores will give you an overage on coupons towards your total purchase. How would feel if you were out of a job, and had to feed your family, put $1.50 in the machine only to find out the coupons wern't in the paper. I have saved over $3000.00 this year. Last week I spent $62.05, and saved $77.86. Maybe you have money to throw away, but I don't.
I was looking for store adds on computer before going shopping because somehow my adds and coupons have not been getting to me with the rest of my paper. It is also an aggravation to find all papers are gone with in first hour of them put in the newspaper sale box. Now I see this is a common thing in alot of places. What is the world coming to ? I do use coupons some when I can get them but you still have to have the money to pay what coupons do not cover. The lady above said it right stealing is stealing. I can bet you she never got a get out of jail coupon in her stash. The same for whoever is stealing here in my area they better have their get out of jail or prepare to stay. I live in Southern Ohio where you lock up any thing stronger then aspirin now it will be coupons. yep need a bigger locked box.
Foolish person. My grandma taught me to never to raid the same newspaper dispenser more than 3 times.
Meanwhile, an employee of the USPS has been caught with selling hot coupons on eBay. Working out of the Corona branch, Tang told investigators that he netted roughly $35,000 from the sale of JCPenney coupons between October 2009 and January of this year
i went to get a paper on the 3rd this month and none of them were in it at paulas the waitress informed me that someone took them all early that morning and it didnt even have any good coupons in it the same as a couple of weeks ago i wish for better coupons that we actually will use
I quess she saved lots of money. now needs attorney. And driving Cadillac SUV?
Its about time somebody did something about these people. i dont know how many times i had to go from store to store or from box to box becouse ignorent people want to steal something they didnt pay for.
Maybe she has a get-out-of-jail coupon.
Yay! I am glad she was caught and that people are doing something about it! I can't believe the number of times I have bought a paper and the coupons weren't in it!
Theft is theft — prosecute!