Mom and baby rob candy store

Christine Ruther, 19, brought her baby along with two three accomplices to rob a candy store in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. From Local12.com:

Police say Ruther took her baby out of a stroller so they could fill it with $400 worth of candy.

Officers followed a trail of candy wrappers to Fourth and Race Streets, where they arrested...

Link (via Fortean Times)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Evil Jim

They probably didn’t even go for the Noka chocolate.
morehumanthanhuman

In Soviet Russia, baby take candy from you!!!
william

Poor, sad sugar addict.
License Farm

Christ, could she have looked more the part? Did the police also follow the sound of her stuffing her face and, by proxy, the void in her soul? Is she the spawn of an unholy pairing of the Hamburglar and Cookie Monster, godfathered by Barney Rubble in the throes of a Fruity Pebble jones? Did her Blackberry malfunction and fast-forward six months to Halloween? During pregnancy had she become convinced her belly would burst forth like a pinata and this was what she thought she was due?

Seriously, any of these would make more sense than what seems to be dull (emphasis on “dull”) reality.
CountD

As easy as stealing candy from a…
Nevermind.
jmullan

Minges Candy Store?

$400 worth of Minge candy?

The first time that I tried to leave this comment I got the “text entered was wrong” error.
ZippySpincycle

More like stealing candy with a…nahh, still not worth it.
ictus

wow. this happened right down the road from me. and now it’s made it to boing boing.

ohio.

we raise winners.
El Stinko

Mmmmm.. she’s a bright looking one. Who would risk this for CANDY? Really.
Mikey Likes BoingBoing

Officers followed a trail of candy wrappers

OK, I’m no criminal mastermind, but I’m pretty sure this is the point where their getaway plan started to go awry.
Anselm

Thievery, om nom nom nom!

Who the hell steals $400 worth of candy and then leaves a trail of wrappers clear enough for the cops to follow?? I suspect either hyperbole on the reporting agency’s part, or else a crime born out of intense cravings for delicious candy rather than outright greed for things without having to pay for them.
ernie

Everyone jumps on her case cuz she can pinch an inch, but no one wants to point out that these fascist candy stores extort us all and until heroes like this get the recognition they deserve Big Sugar will continue to run its jackboots over us.
Stefan Jones

There were three accomplices . . . four if you count the baby.

This young lady needs to grow up. Someone in her situation should be eating something more nutritious than candy. Shouldn’t she be stealing Hot Pockets or frozen pizza or Spaghetti-O’s instead?
Takuan

fetal alcohol syndrome?
Takuan

I didn’t pick on her for being fat. That was a serious diagnosis based on facial feature proportions.
David Pescovitz

Stefan, thanks! Fixed!
Mr_Biggles

I agree, JMULLAN. Minge candy. Far more concerning than anything else in the story.
noen

Yeah, I wonder that same thing. It wouldn’t surprise me if the older males were using them. The comments on the news site are pretty ugly. But ya know, I have to think a lot of crap like this isn’t due to choices the society has made. Things like no health care for low income folk or the way our society simply has abandoned the developmentally disabled. They are simply left to fend for themselves and eventually end up in the legal system. There are too many mentally ill and disabled in our jails.
Nivalsj

I guess Lori Beth Denberg has fallen on some pretty hard times.
el_beardo

Wrappers as a trail? Hmmm… Reminds me of everyone’s favorite hero – Bobby Brady. Luckily for those Brady boys, Bobby saved the day!

I think everyone overlooked the STREET VALUE of that candy!!
Beryllium

Great, just what we needed – more anecdotes in support of parental licensing. Heh.
Slimy

A shining star
ill lich

If she keeps eating candy like this, she’ll end up with “hillbilly teeth.”
pedmands

@ #12 Nivalsj

Hahaaa!
MarkHeck

lol at number 12 – heres soome vital information for yer everyday lives-
Avram

Clearly the baby was the mastermind behind the operation. Why else steal candy?
Chris

Wow – impulse control issues, to say the least.
Stefan Jones

Yeah. Trail of wrappers. Has the makings of a really short episode of CSI.

MMMM. Better yet, Law & Order. But while the identity of the thieves will be determined quickly, by the end of act one we’ll learn that the baby didn’t belong to Christine.

Or maybe the four young rocket scientists will start coughing up blood because . . .

. . . well, I should stop giving away ideas for free. If there’s another writer’s strike I am SO going to be a scab!
Takuan

I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired
The valentines I never knew
The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth…

And those of us with ravaged faces
Lacking in the social graces
Desperately remained at home
Inventing lovers on the phone
Who called to say “come dance with me”
And murmured vague obscenities
It isn’t all it seems at seventeen…

A brown eyed girl in hand me downs
Whose name I never could pronounce
Said: “Pity please the ones who serve
They only get what they deserve”
The rich relationed hometown queen
Marries into what she needs
With a guarantee of company
And haven for the elderly…

So remember those who win the game
Lose the love they sought to gain
In debitures of quality and dubious integrity
Their small-town eyes will gape at you
In dull surprise when payment due
Exceeds accounts received at seventeen…

To those of us who knew the pain
Of valentines that never came
And those whose names were never called
When choosing sides for basketball
It was long ago and far away
the world was younger than today
when dreams were all they gave for free
to ugly duckling girls like me…

We all play the game, and when we dare
We cheat ourselves at solitaire
Inventing lovers on the phone
Repenting other lives unknown
That call and say: “Come on, dance with me”
And murmur vague obscenities
At ugly girls like me, at seventeen…
prom77

Geez, I always used to steal it one or two pieces at a time… Did they really need $400 worth all at once?!?

Even $10 worth of inexpensive candy (easy enough to grab inconspicuously) would take all day to eat surely. Doing that at several different locations for 40 days would admittedly be inconvenient, but it would be safer and would more than get the job done for most sugar addicts.

It’s the economics of the baby-carriage-full-of-candy caper that makes me scratch my head. I’d love to see someone run the numbers on this, risk vs. reward, etc. If you want to steal candy what is the most efficient plan?
Robotech_Master

From those chubby cheeks, it looks like she eats too much candy already.