37 
When Darren Kersey plugged his mobile phone charger into the power supply of a picnic shelter in Gillespie Park, Sarasota, all he wanted was a little boost of his battery level. He certainly didn’t bank on getting arrested and spending the night in a jail cell.
But that’s what happened: police arrested Kersey, charging him with “theft of utilities”, after they spotted him charging his phone in the park last Sunday. Unable to raise the $500 (around £315) bail asked of him, he had no option but to spend the night in jail.
In a subsequent police report, reports the Herald Trubune, Sgt. Anthony Frangioni wrote that “theft of city utilities will not be tolerated during this bad economy.” This might be a good time to point out that it only costs 41 cents (around 30p) to charge an iPhone for a whole year in the US. (For the record, it’s not clear what kind of phone Kersey was charging.)
It seems unlikely, then, that Kersey’s sneaky little charge was costing the city a great deal—which is why, on Monday morning, Circuit Judge Charles Williams threw the case out because Frangioni lacked any legal justification to make the arrest. For once, justice is served. [Herald Tribune via Boing Boing]
Image by Digitalnative under Creative Commons license
Watch This Dude Pull an 8-Tonne Truck With His Ear
Anonymous Blames Arrests on Snitches
Man Arrested For Stealing a Glacier
You convert the currency but not the plug. pff.
Well it was an american plug. You wouldn’t want to confuse the readers.
I’d be asking “How the hell did he plug a UK plug into an American socket?”
There’s a sex joke in there somewhere, but it’s too late to think of one. I’m going to bed.
You failed to mention that the plug socket was actually there to be freely used by the public.
He should have been compensated by the stupid power tripping cop that arrested him.
That’s what I was thinking as well. If there’s a outlet in a public area that accepts standard sized plugs, it was obviously meant for public usage.
I keep telling USA is becoming a sacary “police state” but no one listen to me. :S
sacary = scary
Thank God for all the liberty and freedom they keep telling us their land is full of.
If the guy was homeless wouldn’t he have been relieved to spend a night in a bed and a get breakfast.
If he is homeless and apparently unable to afford to pay for his own utilities, how is he paying for his phone and how has he charged it every other time?
To be honest, I frequent the Westfield Shopping Mall in Shepherds Bush a lot an most of the time the Apple store is filled with people wanting to charge their iPhones.