Friday, December 08, 2006

I am a thief !

ALBANY — Breanna Klewitz spent two hours Wednesday walking a block of sidewalk outside the Dougherty County Superior Court building, carrying one sign that read, “I AM A THIEF” and another that read “I STOLE WHAT YOU WORKED FOR.”

Klewitz was walking off part of an eight-hour sentence handed down by Dougherty County Superior Court Judge Loring Gray for a burglary at a Quiznos restaurant in June.

Public shaming is “something I used to do some years ago with fair regularity,” Gray said. “I just have readopted the policy.”

Gray said he wants people that steal to know that they’re going to face public attention for their crimes. As part of the sentences, Gray said he requires thieves to make their own signs according to certain specifications, among them that the messages have to be visible from 25 feet away.

Gray said prosecutors suggested Klewitz serve weekends in jail, but said that would have accomplished “little or nothing.” She would have been “hidden from public view, and it would have cost the taxpayers of Dougherty County.”

Klewitz, a former assistant manager at the restaurant, her boyfriend and another person were accused of stealing money from the Quiznos register.

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