A man who is accused of shoplifting at a store in Middletown told police that he wanted to go to jail because he’s homeless and it’s cold, according to police.
Police said they responded to the Bob’s store on East Main Street in Middletown on Sunday night to investigate a shoplifting complaint and the store manager told them the shoplifter had gone into the Dollar Tree store.
The 27-year-old man was in the woman’s bathroom, so police knocked on the door and found a stolen pair of shoes and the sweatshirt the man was wearing in a trash bin after he opened the door, according to police.
The man denied being involved, police said. Then officers found what appeared to be crack, but tests for cocaine were negative.
When the man refused to be fingerprinted, officers told him he’d be charged with a felony.
“Good, a felony guarantees I go to jail,” he said, according to the arraignment report.
“You don’t get it, I want to go to jail. I’m homeless and it’s cold out,” he added.
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The man was placed in a holding cell, charged with sixth-degree larceny, interfering with an officer, misrepresentation of a substance as a controlled substance and failure to submit to fingerprinting. He was held on $50,000 bond and is due in court on Jan. 21.
