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Parents Arrested, Lose Custody Over $5 Theft
Pregnant Mom Says She Forgot To Pay For Sandwiches

Posted: Monday, October 31, 2011
Updated: 3:54 pm CDT October 31, 2011

A pregnant woman and her husband were arrested and briefly lost custody of their 3-year-old daughter for allegedly stealing two sandwiches at a supermarket in Honolulu. Nicole Leszczynski, who is 30-weeks pregnant, told a local TV station she was feeling faint and munched on a chicken salad sandwich while shopping at the Safeway store Wednesday.

She paid for roughly $50 worth of groceries but forgot about the two sandwiches, valued at $5 each, according to Safeway. The family was stopped by security staff while leaving the store. Leszczynski offered to pay for the sandwiches, she said, but the security guard called the police, the couple were arrested, and their daughter was taken into custody by Child Protective Services, a state welfare group, MSNBC reported.

The couple's daughter was returned to her parents 18 hours later. According to FOX News, the couple plans to argue against the charges on their court date in November. A statement from a company spokesman said Safeway was investigating the incident. "From our preliminary investigation, it appears we may not have handled this matter in the best possible way. We are taking this situation seriously, and giving it our full attention," Safeway said in a statement on Saturday.

Distributed by Internet Broadcasting.

Other children are living with alcohol/drug using parents, being left in hot cars, being beaten for the slightest thing, living with potentially vicious dogs Etc... and this couple gets their child taken away over 2 sandwiches??? From all accounts it appears to be an honest mistake and I hope they sue the hell out of Safeway. :mad:

$5 for a sandwich ? Now that's stealing.

Ha ha, this brought me back to me being banned from Safeway a couple months ago after they disrespected my mom, and i flipped out on them. They called security on me too. Maybe they are not the "Safe Way" after all. i'll stick with Albertsons. lol

Other children are living with alcohol/drug using parents, being left in hot cars, being beaten for the slightest thing, living with potentially vicious dogs Etc... and this couple gets their child taken away over 2 sandwiches??? From all accounts it appears to be an honest mistake and I hope they sue the hell out of Safeway. :mad:

I agree with you. Yes, it's wrong (to steal), but yeah, the consequence seems way out of proportion to the crime.

I read that Safeway dropped the charges.

That store is horrible and those incompetant mgrs s/b fired. I hope the couple sues the store. It was pretty obvious it was an oversight on the couple's part - she was disoriented, tired, hungry and 30 weeks pregnant.
With all the distress and horrid treatment she could have miscarried.

I hope many many people boycott this horrible chain and God Bless those organizing boycotts for Safeway. Sure's not a safe place for families and especially pregnant women.

One reason why i was able to forgive Safeway is because i know how nasty many customers can be, and having so many friends working in retail, (my brother included). i know how annoying and deceitful many customers can often be, and many workers have a tendancy to lose their patience easily because of this. iv'e found that once they get to know you though, if you are a good person, they usually lighten up a bit, and we often even become friends.

What Safeway did in the above situation was ridiculous, and as stated, could have been dangerous for the pregnant woman. It's nice to see that some are acknowledging their mistake though, and hopefully this incident will help them to not react on impulse in the future. If a lesson is learned, this can turn into a positive.

My brother worked for Nabisco for a few years. He got promoted, and was one of the top five workers in the Nation. Two weeks later, Nabisco had a Christmas party where my brother got drunk, and got stopped, and arrested. This was his second, or third DUI. He lost his license for two years, and his job since it required him to drive most of the day. Because of this incident, Nabisco's policy for parties changed Nationwide immediately after, and now drinking is no longer allowed at their parties. So this bad situation turned out good, and may have even saved lives. Hopefully something similar will happen with Safeway.