Various sizes of memory cards.

What do you do when you’re a petty thief who has caught someone in a much more serious crime?  That’s what one Australian man found himself pondering after he stole two mobile phones and a wallet from a car in a supermarket in Ballarat, Australia.  When the thief fired up the phones, he made a disturbing discovery of child pornography on one of the phones.  Presumably the thief hesitated, but he knew what he had to do.  The thief turned himself into police so he could report the person he stole from for possession of child pornography.

“You did the right thing.  That kind of offending is very serious.  You are to be commended for your conduct even though it placed you at jeopardy of losing your own liberty,” said Magistrate Michelle Hodgson at Ballarat Magistrates Court.  “We don’t want to discourage other like minded people to act in the manner you have.”

That’s right.  Despite knowing he could be prosecuted for stealing the phones and wallet from the car, the thief still turned himself and the stolen goods in to the police because it was the right thing to do, said prosecutor Senior Constable Steve Kent.  The man ended up pleading to 7 charges, all various theft-based offenses, but he was given a relaxed sentence of one month in jail and a $400 fine.

Tags: Ballarat Magistrates Court, Michelle Hodgson, unusual criminals, thief turns in stolen phone after child porn found on it, thief turns child porn over to police, unusual incidents, law and order, crime and punishment, thief turns child porn over to police, thief turns himself in to report child porn, Ballarat, Australia,  Senior Constable Steve Kent

I’ve never had a problem eating food from a gas station.  Just two weeks ago, I ate a couple of hot dogs purchased from a gas station.  They were delicious.  That’s not the first time I’ve eaten gas station food, and I doubt it will be the last.  There’s nothing like a fun food novelty. […]

Commissioner Roger Goodell gathered 32 NFL owners for one big question.  One of the league’s most wanderlust-stricken franchises is looking to move again.  The Oakland-Los Angeles-Oakland Raiders, tired of gutting it out in a run-down stadium, were once again looking for greener pastures.  Only the Miami Dolphins refused to cooperate.  With a vote of 31-1, […]

In 2006, an injury to Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe opened the door for an undrafted free agent by the name of Tony Romo to take the helm of America’s Team and lead the Dallas Cowboys to an early playoff exit.  Bledsoe went from starter to afterthought in a season.  Now, the circle continues […]

For 89 years, Oscars has never had a major mistake.  The last few Oscars might have had a few flubs, but at least they never got the most important category of the night wrong.  Well, that’s now changed, all thanks to OG Bonnie and Clyde legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.  When Faye Dunaway called […]

Tom Brady has been wildly successful, if controversial.  He’s the first quarterback ever to win five Super Bowls and only the second player to do so after Charles Haley.  Unlike Haley, Brady won all his Super Bowls with the same team, the New England Patriots.  The only thing that seems to be able to stop […]

Ben Affleck, no matter what you might think of him, is a talented actor and director.  He’s got the goods, but he’s smart enough to know when he’s in over his head.  All along, since he took on the mantle of Batman, he’s had his eyes on writing, directing, and starring as the Caped Crusader. […]

In May, students for the for-profit American College of Education were running into some problems.  Their access to email accounts and course information was locked down by Google, who had disabled their accounts.  The reason why?  A fired IT worker for the American College of Education locked the school out of their Google cloud account. […]