Man steals pub chips in Melbourne, faces court after police hunt him down
EXCLUSIVE: A PUNTER who pinched a handful of “cold” chips from a parma lunch in a Melbourne pub was hunted down by police and hauled off to court.
Law & Order
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A PUNTER who pinched a handful of chips from a pub lunch was hunted by police and hauled off to court, leaving even a magistrate chuckling.
Almost everybody has leaned over and taken a handful of chips from a mate’s plate.
So when a student, 23, scooped up a handful of chips while drinking with mates on Australia Day, he didn’t think it would land him in court.
His problem was that he took the chips from a stranger’s counter meal.
He had been drinking with his mates at the old-school Great Western Hotel in King St in the city, since closed.
The man said a lonely parma and chips, and two other meals, had sat on the counter, unclaimed, for far too long, and at last temptation had got the better of him.
He left the parma untouched, but bolted out the door with a mouthful of chips.
“The chips had gone cold, the chef wasn’t watching. We took some chips and took off,” he said on Thursday.
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The group then continued drinking at a nearby bar.
But a short time later, “between nine and 11” police arrived to arrest him for theft.
“They were a bit aggro, seemed to enjoy it,” the man said. “It’s like they were on edge for something else. They seemed almost apologetic afterwards,” he said.
“In fairness, they seemed as embarrassed and as annoyed to have their time wasted by this as I was.
“It seemed like it was the owner that was very insistent on pressing charges.”
The student said he’d been so ashamed of being arrested, he had kept the incident his little secret.
The man faced Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday on a single count of theft.
The experienced magistrate, Franz Holzer, couldn’t help but smirk while reading a short police summary of the offence.
Prosecutors agreed to let the student take part in the court diversion program, which allows mainly first-time offenders to escape conviction by undertaking to comply with certain conditions to benefit the offender, the victim, and the community as a whole.
A diversion must be agreed to by police.
The student was ordered to pay $50 to the Salvation Army and to be of good behaviour for four months.
Mr Holzer said the crime had been a “stupid prank” and the result of “foolhardy and immature” behaviour.
