An Ohio woman is facing a bizarre-yet-somewhat-fitting punishment after bailing on her cab fare.
She has a choice of spending 30 days in jail, or she can walk 30 miles in 48 hours — the equal distance of the ride she skipped out on and didn’t pay for.
via PEOPLE:
Victoria Bascom hailed a cab from Cleveland to Painesville, Ohio, prosecutors said, according to WOIO. But when she got there, she just left.
In video from the Thursday sentencing, Bascom said she wasn’t actually the last one of the passengers to leave the cab, and that she thought the other riders would cover the fare.
Judge Michael Cicconetti asked her, “What would you do if you didn’t have a cab?”
“Walk,” she said.
“So I think it’s only appropriate that you walk the 30 miles,” he said.
Bascom agreed, and on Friday began her journey at Lake County Fairgrounds afternoon, according to WKYC. Cicconetti suggested that she do the 30-mile walk there, which works out to about 40 laps (the court would monitor her progress with GPS, he said).
Bascom was also sentenced to three days of community service and ordered to pay restitution to United Cab, according to video from the sentencing.
This isn’t the first time Cicconetti (nicknamed “Creative Cicconetti” by some) has made headlines for his rulings, having previously ordered criminals to spend the night in the woods or stand on street corners with signs, according to WKYC.
On the same day he handed down Bascom’s punishment, he gave a similar decision to a woman who had maced someone at a Burger King: spend 30 days in jail, or be maced herself, according to WKYC.
(The woman told the station that it was only water in the can – the punishment was “the fear of it.”)
“I wouldn’t do anything illegal,” Cicconetti told WKYC. “Will there be maybe some public feedback or whatever? I don’t care. I do whatever I think is right. I do whatever I think will prevent a person from coming back in the courts again.”
You know, we actually think that’s pretty fair. What do you think?
