Meat thief receives fine, time served

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This article was published 11/08/2023 (966 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man who repeatedly stole hundreds of dollars of meat from grocery stores around town received time served and $700 in fines in court on Thursday.

Michael Jacobson, 31, pleaded guilty to multiple theft charges spanning from 2022 until earlier this spring. Both the Crown and defence agreed on a sentence of time served and fine, though the Crown left the amount of the fines up to the judge’s discretion. Jacobson had already spent about three months behind bars.

Crown attorney Reid Girard read the evidence for the charges against Jacobson in court.

On Nov. 7, 2022, an employee at the Real Canadian Superstore reported a theft to Brandon police. A man had placed several packages of meat, totalling $150, into a basket and fled from the store.

Though police identified Jacobson through video surveillance, officers weren’t able to locate him until Jan. 4, 2023. Officers recognized Jacobson as they were patrolling on Victoria Avenue between 11th and 12th streets. When Jacobson saw police, he started running, carrying a black bag with him.

When police caught up with Jacobson, they found that the black bag was full of meat. Officers later learned that Jacobson had stolen $250 of meat from the Superstore earlier that day. He tells police that he was stealing the meat and selling it to get money to buy drugs.

In another instance a month later, police found Jacobson running through a parking lot towards the Riverbank Discovery Centre carrying grocery bags. Once police caught up to him, again they found multiple packages of meat from Walmart and $100 worth of chicken breasts that had been stolen from Safeway.

Jacobson also stole $100 worth of meat from Sobeys in March and another $100 worth of meat from Superstore in May.

The Crown attorney asked the court to sentence Jacobson to fines and 90 days in custody for the charges.

“This seemingly nonstop string of thefts even in the face of undertakings to not attend the specific stores he’s stealing from seems to point to the fact that Mr. Jacobson is an individual with very little respect for [court-ordered] conditions and for the property of others,” Girard said.

Jacobson’s defence lawyer, Bob Harrison, disagreed with the Crown that a lack of respect was the reason for his client’s offending. Rather, Harrison said it was a sign of his client’s “terrible addiction to crystal meth.”

He said that his client admitted to stealing the meat for money to feed his addiction and said that Jacobson has plans to get into detox after he is released.

Associate Chief Judge Donovan Dvorak said that he understood that addiction was the motivation behind Jacobson’s crimes, given that he hardly had much of a criminal record until 2022.

“When I look at somebody who has sort of a long string of thefts over a short period of time … [and] it just sort of comes up in their life at one point, it obviously brings to mind the suspicion that somebody is under the influence of meth addiction,” Dvorak said.

The judge said that Jacobson needed to dedicate energy and time to putting his addiction behind him.

Ultimately, Dvorak sentenced Jacobson to $700 in fines and time served. Jacobson was also sentenced to a year of supervised probation with conditions to not attend the west end Sobeys, Walmart or Superstore.

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

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