babble » blogs » Strollerderby
Strollerderby
Women Shamed Outside Court for Stealing from Kid
Two adult women stood outside a Pennsylvania courthouse for four and a half hours with giant signs: “I stole from a nine-year-old on her birthday! Don’t steal or this could happen to you!”
A little girl had placed her gift card on a shelf while a Wal-Mart employee assisted her – ostensibly with her purchases. The women – fifty-six-year-old Evelyn Border and thirty-five-year-old Tina Griekspoor – grabbed the card and took off.
Talk about stealing candy from a baby.
According to an NPR report, Border and Griekspoor have agreed to plead guilty to theft – and they’ll receive a lighter sentence for agreeing to stand outside the courthouse with their signs held up. They’ll likely face probation rather than jailtime.
The little girl’s mother said she made it a point to swing by the courthouse to show her child the importance of obeying the law. No doubt being a victim of a crime helped cement that one in this little girl’s mind as well.
This sort of punishment has been used a lot on kids in recent years – shame works well on them because they’re still caught up in what other people – other kids – think of them. It’s more rare to see it done on adults. But hurting a child is considered one of the lowest crimes possible (hence even hardcore murderers turn on child molesters in prison) – the shame factor is high.
Is this the sort of punishment that should be wielded more often by judges dealing with crimes on kids?
More by this author:
-
Mom Plans Live Birth on the Internet
-
Pregnant Woman Requests All White Delivery Staff
-
They Want to Sell WHAT for Kids?
Go Back To Strollerderby
8 Comments
PlumbLucky commented on Nov 04 09 at 1:36 pmI’d call it a creative, and possibly even worthwhile, punishment.
Mistress_Scorpio commented on Nov 04 09 at 2:33 pmSounds good to me!
Lucky commented on Nov 05 09 at 3:03 pmI’d still rather see them in jail. Who steals from children?!
Ri-chan commented on Nov 07 09 at 10:58 am@Lucky- The jails are overfull in the first place, putting someone in jail for a crime like this just wastes money. This punishment is effective psycologically and much more cost effective.
Alicia commented on Dec 01 09 at 6:36 pmI think this is a great punishment. Especially since it makes it possible for people to go up to them and show them the scorn they deserve. (Personally I would’ve spat on them.)
Gerhard Wegner commented on Jan 02 10 at 3:52 pmComments
From a European point of view this kind of punishment is horrible. It is a violation of human rights. I have sympathy with the old lady who never violated the law in her life. In the first place, US Justice seems to be governed by the principle of revenge.
Rebecca commented on Jan 31 10 at 7:19 pmGerhard, I don’t understand you. Why do you feel sorry for someone who STOLE from a child?
And exactly what human rights were violated by making a criminal hold a sign stating their crime for a few hours? Those women should be grateful to the judge for allowing them an alternative sentence.
Heather commented on May 24 11 at 5:32 pmI totally agree with this type of thing. Stealing in general is wrong, but stealing from a child is SO much worse. My friend recently had someone break into her car (which, admittedly, was not locked) and they stole things like her wallet and GPS. That didn’t make her nearly as upset as the fact that they stole her 5 yr old daughter’s tee ball jersey! It’s not even like that was something they could possibly have gotten any money out of, and her daughter couldn’t finish the season because they couldn’t get her a new jersey. I hope if whoever stole from her gets caught, that they will be shamed in the same way.
Add your take:
Note: Babble is a supportive, diverse community. We encourage a range of opinions,
but any unduly hostile comments will be removed.
Comments are delayed up to 15 minutes
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
8