A penny saved may be a penny earned, but in Texas, a penny stolen is about to become a felony.State lawmakers passed a bill this session increasing the penalties for metal theft, a crime that has become a growing problem statewide.
Under current law, it is a state jail felony to steal anything worth less than $20,000 if the item is at least 50 percent copper.
A provision of the new bill that takes effect Sept. 1 strikes out the 50 percent threshold, meaning that the theft of any item with any amount of copper could be considered a state jail felony. All pennies consist of at least 2.5 percent copper, according to the U.S. Mint.
Shannon Edmonds, director of governmental relations for the Texas District & County Attorneys Association, has jokingly pointed out the new "penny punishment" at meetings he has been holding around the state to educate prosecutors about laws approved in this year's legislative sessions.
Edmonds said he doesn't expect any prosecutor to charge someone with a state jail felony for stealing a penny. But he added that it shows how lawmakers often change current law without fully realizing the consequences.
"In their zeal to get after some of these scrap-metal scavengers, they really swung the pendulum pretty far to the other side," Edmonds said.
Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, was a lead author of the metal theft bill. His spokesman, Kelvin Bass, said that going after penny thieves was obviously not the bill's intent. "We're going to rely on the reasonable discretion of the prosecutors in bringing those cases forward," Bass said.
Penny coin albums available from Boscastle Supplies
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/08/06/3273846/a-penny-stolen-could-be-a-felony.html#ixzz1UTLy7aJL
A provision of the new bill that takes effect Sept. 1 strikes out the 50 percent threshold, meaning that the theft of any item with any amount of copper could be considered a state jail felony. All pennies consist of at least 2.5 percent copper, according to the U.S. Mint.
Shannon Edmonds, director of governmental relations for the Texas District & County Attorneys Association, has jokingly pointed out the new "penny punishment" at meetings he has been holding around the state to educate prosecutors about laws approved in this year's legislative sessions.
Edmonds said he doesn't expect any prosecutor to charge someone with a state jail felony for stealing a penny. But he added that it shows how lawmakers often change current law without fully realizing the consequences.
"In their zeal to get after some of these scrap-metal scavengers, they really swung the pendulum pretty far to the other side," Edmonds said.
Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, was a lead author of the metal theft bill. His spokesman, Kelvin Bass, said that going after penny thieves was obviously not the bill's intent. "We're going to rely on the reasonable discretion of the prosecutors in bringing those cases forward," Bass said.
Penny coin albums available from Boscastle Supplies
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/08/06/3273846/a-penny-stolen-could-be-a-felony.html#ixzz1UTLy7aJL
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