In a first of its kind judgement, a judge in Ohio sentenced a woman to walk over 48 kilometres — the same distance of the taxi fare she had ditched.
Prosecutors said Victoria Bascom called a cab to take her from Cleveland to Painesville. After arriving at her destination, she bailed without paying.
Bascom was found guilty and Judge Michael Cicconetti gave her a sentence of her choice: either to serve 60 days in the Lake County Jail or walk over 48 kilometres within 48 hours because that was the distance the taxi drove her. Bascom chose the latter.
Bascom was also sentenced to four months probation and ordered to pay United Cab $100 in restitution.
Judge Cicconetti is known for giving people a taste of their own medicine. In the past, Cicconetti has sentenced a drunken driver to view bodies of car crash victims in the morgue and in 2002, he sentenced a man who had called a police officer a “pig” during a confrontation to stand in the street with a large pig, and a sign that read “this is not a police officer”.
