Yahoo News Pregnant woman gets two months in jail for stealing Pringles
A pregnant woman has been sentenced to jail for two months in Ireland for stealing and causing criminal damage to a tube of Pringles.
Kathleen McDonagh had started eating the crisps before paying for the £1.30 snack at a Tesco shop in Cork.
The 25-year-old had previously been banned from the store and a string of previous convictions, including for theft.
McDonagh said she had only opened the crisps so that security would let her pay for it.
Instead, she was arrested and subsequently jailed for damaging the product as it could no longer be sold.
The incident took place in December 2016 but has only just come to court.
She had already been banned from the store at the time of the incident.
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McDonagh was known to its staff when she took the tin of Pringles and headed to the self-checkout area.
Security staff approached her to order her to leave the store when she popped the Pringles top and opened the foil seal.
An inspector told the court that she said: “I opened it so you have to leave me pay for it”.
McDonagh’s lawyers asked for leniency from the court, explaining that she was recently married and several months pregnant.
She had also pleaded guilty.
Regardless, the court imposed a sentence of four months, with two months suspended.
The judge said it was difficult to see her actions as anything but ‘smart Alec behaviour’.
