Carpenter imprisoned 3-years for stealing policeman’s plantain

A 35-year-old carpenter from Saltpond, Mensah Moses has been sentenced to three years imprisonment for stealing a policeman’s plantain.

Speaking to Crime Check TV GH, Moses said he shares a wall with the police officer and both had plantain gardens at their backyard but his did not yield enough.

He said he once had a confrontation with the police officer over a plantain he harvested from the officer’s garden.

The young man indicated that as a result of that preceding incident, when the police officer realized his plantain had been harvested again, ‘he alleged that I did it but I am innocent though I used to harvest some bunches from his garden without his knowledge,’ Moses said.

 According to him, he was ignorant that stealing a neighbour’s item was a crime and the act could land him in the grips of the law.

“I thought it was a normal thing to steal from a neighbor because you know each other very well. I did not know one could be arrested for engaging in such acts. For example stealing meat from your mother’s soup is a crime but I did not know,” he said.

Moses said he was a chain weed and cigarettes smoker and admitted it influenced him to indulge in acts of crime. He said he did not get job offers making life difficult for him. This he said compelled him to be stealing the officer’s plantain to sell because he relied on it for his survival.

He said the police officer reported him and he was apprehended. The father of two said he was arraigned before court where the judge presiding over his case sentenced him to three years imprisonment.

“I am very worried that I am known in Saltpond for stealing so when I leave the prison I will relocate to a different town” he stated.

Moses advised the youth to desist from drug abuse.

With support from a couple in the US, Sammy, and Dorothy, CCF paid his fine of Four Hundred Ghana cedis for his release.

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Crime Check Foundation (CCF) airs interviews with prison inmates to caution the general public against crime.

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By Rudolph Nandi