Do you agree with the police charging this man?

Question

This happened in my area and people are pretty upset and divided about it. Basically, a Clemson University father was charged by the police with petit larceny after he took a cooler from the goodwill donation bin after donating a chair. 
Some people think the charge is fine as goodwill has the right to ask for charges to be pressed on him as the property was theirs, others think the charge was too harsh but that he should have been charged, others think he should not have been charged at all and only given a warning, others think it shouldn’t have been an issue at all since he donated an item, etc. 
I’ve attached the article below if you want to read more about it/the reasoning behind it.

Accepted Answer

That's tacky to take from donations and it's weird and gross that people are justifying it by saying he donated a chair. So? I donated shit to goodwill for years, should I be allowed to go take whatever I want from their store because they owe me something for my DONATIONS? All caps because a donation is a gift, and with all gifts you should not expect anything in return. That being said, it was a lunchbox for crying out loud! Give the man community service and a small fine. Larceny for a lunchbox... good lord.

Answer

I guess since my perception is that anything placed in those bins is not necessarily a “Goodwill donation” but rather a “I didn’t want it anymore and wasn’t sure what to do with it” and Goodwill should be grateful for anything they get FOR FREE that this seems ridiculous to me. If it were sitting in their store with a price tag and someone took it, that’s different, but this sounds no different to me than sitting on a curb asking for a new home.

Answer

Fuck goodwill. They have plenty of money & get plenty of donations.
And they won't help people who are in need if they come into the store. Maybe there's a reason for that, but they market themselves as a charity and I'd prefer they conduct themselves differently.
So of course, I think they were ridiculous to report this person taking a cooler, especially after donating... 
Like chill, goodwill, you are being extra.
I think he should have been given a warning. Maybe he'd give the cooler back, at worst. Lol

Answer

The fact that goodwill were petty enough  to take a father to court over a $10/20 (at most) COOLER BAG is absurd and honestly begs the question of the priorities of their corporation. Honestly this has made me personally reconsider donating or shopping there again. Thanks for posting this.

Answer

That means Goodwill charged them, not the police. Yhe police don't charge people. The victim charges people. Goodwill is the victim here. They considered themselves robbed, so they charged them. It's up to them really. It does seem like kind of a petty charge to me. But there might be more to it than we know. Goodwill might get this all the time & corporate night make them charge people who steal. Just a possibility. Who knows

Answer

You don’t walk up to someone’s home and take an item because you left another. It’s stealing, period.  The item was on their property, and once donated to them, belongs to them. Whether or not he made a donation is irrelevant.

Answer

This one is hard. My first thought is he’s guilty of stealing because the donations belong to goodwill, when I read your post I thought he stole it from a bin AT the goodwill. But upon reading the article it seems that the goodwill gets these donations because they partner with the college to set out collection bins because my guess is otherwise people would be leaving it on the sidewalk with a free sign and then the college would need to do something with it, so instead they have bins available for people to put their unwanted stuff in. To me he should be able to grab something out, it’s kinda greedy, but at the same time the bag probably would have been kept or trashed if the college hadn’t partnered with them. I think he should just get a warning and not be charged.

Answer

Maybe give him a ticket, make him pay for the value of the item plus an extra donation, but charges?? 
They have an ongoing problem with people taking stuff out and he's the only one they've caught. so they're making an example out of him instead of solving the issue of the donation bins being so easily accessible.

Answer

I definitely don’t think it should have been that serious. Like community service maybe because it was just a fabric cooler. Also people are putting stuff in the bins because they don’t want it anymore, it’s not like goodwill is buying it off them, and it wasn’t even in the store yet. If he took something out the bin that he wanted he’s taking something someone didn’t want. I think goodwill should be grateful for the donations they do get and not worry about insanely charging someone for taking one little cooler out a bin. Yes it could be considered their property, but again they didn’t buy it. I personally wouldn’t take anything out of a goodwill bin, but I don’t think he should have been charged like that over a cooler.

Answer

It's not a take it or leave it bin. I don't love goodwill, but they have every right to protect their property, and it was 100% their property if it was in their donation bin.

Do you agree with the police charging this man?

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