Three-Year-Old Taken by HPD: Parents Arrested over $5 Sandwich

A three-year-old was taken by HPD and her parents arrested over a $5 sandwich. The couple was arrested and charged with 4th degree theft Wednesday after they forgot to pay for a $5 sandwich.

The Leszczynskis, Nichole, Marcin and their daughter Zophia, had gone shopping at a local Safeway store. Nicole, who is pregnant, felt shaky and faint after the walk to the store, so she and her husband grabbed a sandwich to eat while shopping.

"We walked a long way to the grocery store and I was feeling faint, dizzy, like I needed to eat something, so we decided to pick up some sandwiches and eat them while we were shopping," she says.

The Leszczynskis bought $50 worth of groceries but forgot to pay for the sandwich. When approached in the parking lot by security about the oversight, they offered to pay for the sandwich, but the store manager called police, the couple arrested, and the three-year-old taken by HPD.

"We didn't know where our daughter was, didn't know what the situation was, she didn't have any clothes, they just took her right from the grocery store," she says Zophia returned home to her parents 18 hours later.

Leszczynski told KHON, "It was a complete distraction, distracted parent moment."

The 18-hour nightmare caused the couple a sleepless night worrying about their daughter, and after Nicole posted the details of the incident on the parenting website www.babycenter.com, many parents became outraged.

Safeway responded to the KHON story by saying, "it appears we may not have handled this matter in the best possible way, and we are taking the situation seriously." That seems a little lacking, and it seems that HPD has a few things to answer to as well.