I spent 23 days in jail for "failure to return a movie rental" AMA!

Florida. Again.

More specifically Pasco County, they put a guy in jail because his lawn wasn't pretty enough.

What did the judge say?

The judge was pissed that I fell through the cracks of the system. I had no record and I mean, it's a movie rental. He ordered that I "sleep in my bed that night".

It was originally a 30 day sentence, 25 days with good behavior. I went home on the 23rd night.

Was it porn?

It was Final Destination...on VHS.

Did you get to keep the movie?

Fun story, kinda. So a few months after this all went down I joined the Army, went to basic and AIT and all that nonsense and came back to Florida for home town recruiting. While there I visited a friend of mine and we were gonna go out. So while he's in the shower and getting ready I look through movies to watch and I see the actual copy of the tape with the rental sticker on it and everything.

So we take it outside and beat the shit out of it with our skateboards Office Space style.

how did your family react?

I called my mom while I was there and she was PISSED! She didn't believe that I honestly didn't do anything. She kept saying that they wouldn't go through all that trouble if I didn't steal anything. When I got out and was finally able to fully describe what had really happened she wasn't upset with me anymore, and now we laugh about it.

As far as the actually being in jail part, she was worried about me. Like me, she didn't know that there was a difference between jail and prison. So she thought that I was in there with rapists and murderers and such. When I explained that all I did was sleep, eat, watch TV, play cards and basketball I think she was a little less worried, but still a mom.

Outside of my mom and dad however, the rest of my family has no clue this even happened.

Do you still have to pay the late fee?

I had to pay 92 dollars in restitution fees, and court fees.

Doesn't shock mre considering FLs puritanical laws. Did you have a prior record ?

Nope, clean. What was confusing was I didn't know what I "stole" until the judge said it. All I knew was that it was petit theft, which meant I stole something less than 500 bucks. So the whole time I'm there, I'm confused as all hell since I don't steal shit.

why do you think the video rental store put the money into pressing charges vs the cost of a VHS?

I don't know. I did have to pay restitution to them, but it was only like 92 bucks or something like that. The owners were an old couple, I think that's just the only way they thought they could get their money back perhaps.

What were the other people you were in with in for?

Did you make any friends?

Most of them were in there for domestic issues or drunk driving or repeated smaller offenses. As far as friends go, none that I kept track of once I left. There were ones that I spent most of my time with and played cards with and basketball with. It was very cliquey in there.

Toss any salad?

Being naive going in, this kinda shit worried me. But I was in minimum security after the first two days of processing. Basically it was a large hard tent, like one they would have at a fair or something that was fenced in. Inside were rows of bunk beds on both sides with long tables down the middle.

Worst I saw was a dude get pepper sprayed after a fight playing basketball. It was actually pretty awesome.

The worst part was using the shitter, the showers were individual showers but the toilets were just placed there in a row with no barriers.