What do you do when you've lost your job and the unemployment money's run out?Maybe you'd look for odd jobs or even beg for a spot at McDonald's grill, spatula in hand, ready to flip burgers for minimum wage.
Unless you're Jaclyn and Steve Madera, a pair of siblings who found a really odd job to support themselves.
The not-so-clever couple from the Chicago suburbs don't have to worry about finding work for the near future, not when they'll have their basic needs met by Illinois taxpayers.
Who says crime doesn't pay? It got the Madera clan free food and lodging for as many years as the judge sentences them for theft.
Jaclyn drove the get-away car, sometimes with her children in the back seat. The woman was hard up for cash, and where do you get money to pay a sitter if you don't have enough to keep body and soul together to begin with?
Her brother would leap from the car, fake gun in hand, and snatch gold chains from the necks of startled women. Then the pair would drive off, to pawn their ill-gotten gains and put food on the table.
No harm meant by Steven, obviously, since he couldn't have shot anyone. It was all to scare the victim, and just long enough to snatch and flee.
There's not much money to be made at McDonald's, and there sure isn't much to be made in pawning a few gold chains that don't have all that much pure gold in them. The Maderas had to steal a lot of chains, and the necessary frequency of their job-related thieving got them caught.
They had to keep going back to the same area, what with the price of gas and the time needed to drive to more distant suburbs. It was, perhaps, the greatest flaw in their business model.
Bail's been set at $2 million, and as you'd expect, the financially strapped duo won't be leaving jail any time soon.
But they'll eat for free and sleep in a decent shelter for free, be given clothing that's not stylish but it's free, and they can look forward to free medical and dental care.
Not the most desirable situation, but that's how it worked during the Great Depression, when people were desperate and had no other choice than to turn to petty crime to get a roof over their heads.
As for the metal bars that form the rest of the little place the Maderas will soon call home, that's the trade-off for choosing crime over a job that no one else wants to do.
2 comments:
WHo are you to judge or make a blog about something you only got your info from a newpaper article. If you dont know them perpsonally do not judge them.
Who am I? Just a writer, doing what I do...write.
In this case, writing a precautionary tale for others who might find themselves in similar straits and need to be warned before embarking on an equally foolhardy course.
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