Hello, I'm Jace from Houston Texas.

In June of '10, I drove out to a gas station at around 10 at night with 2 friends, parked, and went to a pasture. We brought some beer with us, we were all underage (I'm 19, they were 17 and 18). We went out to try cow tipping... which as some might know, is a stupid sport(?) for some southerners. We were drinking, and trying to push over the said cows, and noticed we were diagonal to what appeared to be a self storage center. While intoxicated, we proceeded to climb over the fence surrounding the facility. Once over, we entered the buildings, and looked over the partitions that divided the storage 'units'. We broke into nothing, cut no locks, etc. We were there on the spur of the moment. We were looking around inside the storage units, and the 18 year old saw an iMac. He grabbed it, and then began the worst part. We removed items from some 4 self storage units, the most expensive item being the iMac, and everything else being along the lines of a pair of hockey sticks we were hitting each other with, and some old shoes.

After the said items were removed from their respective owner's cells, we proceeded to walk out, jump the fence again, and walk along the small road to the gas station we parked at. As we walked, a black mustang went by, that I knew for a fact was an undercover police vehicle. As he blazed by, I ushered my friends into the thick brushy/wooded area off the road. The vehicle had another, a police cruiser, following it too. They entered the gas station, turned around, and came back to the spot where we'd left the road. They shot their spotlights into the thick vegetation on the side of the road, and demanded that we show ourselves. We did not oblige, and instead we ran pell-mell deeper into the woods. The 18 year old gentleman tripped, but neither me, nor my other friend noticed innour haste. We got away, and called the 18 year old on his cellular phone, and tried to regroup with him, by were unable.

In our absence, parents were called, and the 17&18 year old's (who happen to be brothers) father came out to the scene. They threatened to use canine, gps, and [/I]helicopter[I] systems to find us. By that time, panic was overpowering the alcohol, and I had the 17 year old remove the battery and SIM from his phone, in order to prevent gps tracking. We walked in the general direction of the neighborhood in which we lived, and saw the road that we had been on was blockaded. We walked several miles in a creek covered mostly by trees to throw off dogs, and obscure helicopter's line of sight.

We went to all that trouble, because the police response seemed to be far outweighing the crime... an we were right. After spending a week on the run, we received intel that they mistakenly thought we were 'copper theives', people who have been stripping the cores out of A/C units in the Houston area. We came back, and the police had found the stolen items where we dropped them, in the woods. They were listed as 'lost' property. The three of us had no charges against us.

About a week later, I went to the storage facility, and informed the proprietor of the establishment that some owners' possessions were with the police, listed as missing. I explained to her I'd pay the owners damages, because I felt that it was the right thing to do.

I heard nothing, until just the other day, when a group of three Sherriffs came to a house I used to live in, to arrest me. The individual living there alerted me of this, and said that they were after me for a felony theft.

I would have accepted jail when I confessed to the owner, but I'm about to get married, and I really can't go to jail at this point. Can anyone tell me what I am looking at; fines, time, chance of parole, settling out of court? I'm working two jobs, living on my own, and I've done nothing before or since.

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Originally Posted by ascent.dev

Can anyone tell me what I am looking at; fines, time, chance of parole, settling out of court?

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Hello a:

Probation, most likely... It's a good story. You should try writing..

excon

Thanks. I appreciate your quick response.

How about a worst case scenario? I hear they throw the book at you here...

And thanks. I'm not nearly creative enough to be a writer, though. I'm a physics/mathematics sort.

Hello again, a:

Worst case, (I see that you're in Texas) probation.

excon

UPDATE:

Warrant was put out for my arrest in December, I got stopped in a routine traffic stop (I was missing my front license plate! Give me a break!). I spent the night and next day in the Houston City jail... Not a nice place, let me assure you. Got bailed by my friends.

Been to a few court dates. A very highly respected lawyer of good repute took my case pro-bono. He talked to the DA, and she agreed to try for a Pre-Trial Diversion. I did, unfortunately, get saddled with a ankle tracking device before I had the lawyer. He is trying to get it removed. Next court date to see if I get the diversion is the 22 of march.

First I really doubt they had dogs and copters even for cooper thieves, my guess they were yelling those things just to scare you to get you to give up, We used to threaten all sorts of things as a police officers if someone was hiding,
The GPS tracking was the funniest, they can't track most phones since they don't have a tracking system in them, unless you are using them, and without a build in tracking, they only track them to the nearest tower.

But anyway, since you all fell for it, it worked.

But yes probation, you are making yourself sound way more serious than it is

Thank you for your input, Chuck.
Firstly, no, they didn't use them. They would have wasted their energy if they had, though. I am a survival expert, and despite some bad judgment calls, I'm nothing short of brilliant. Call me conceited.
Secondly, yes, they could have tracked the phone. It was a blackberry, with GPS onboard. Also, they have used tower triangulation to pinpoint cellular phones without GPS in the past.
Thirdly, I have had two acquaintances mauled by police dogs. They use them, and for relatively small crimes.
Fourthly, it didn't work, it did the exact opposite. We disappeared off the grid, and God himself couldn't have found us. We were gone for a week, until the intel channels I was monitoring showed that we weren't wanted.
Fifthly, jail time is not a stretch. I have a truly delightful judge, who put a gentleman in jail for 6 months for breaking into a car and stealing a phone, just while I was sitting in the courtroom.
I am making this as serious as it is.

Sixthly, you obviously don't know how serious the copper thievery is getting down here. They are very, very serious about that. The store we were near had already been ripped off, and that's why they had police patrolling the area.

Also, about the seriousness, I don't know how serious you think creating a roadblock out of police cars and fire trucks is, but in my book, that means business.

I retired after 25 years in state and federal law enforcement, so yes plead guilty take a plea deal for 3 years and feel good about it. Or get an attorney , not make any more statements and get a plea deal for a few years probation at most.

You want to feel you are a bad gangster and going to get jail time go for it.

You are the textbook definition of a stupid cop. I wouldn't normally say something like that, as I respect law enforcement; not only for their authority, but their protection of me and my friends and family. But it would seem that I finally ran into a real piece of work. See, the constables and sheriffs where I come from are respectable, fair, and overall, pretty intelligent. At least the one fool of an officer I ran into was on the internet, in a flame war.
I am pleading no contest, as is the 'popular' thing to do these days. I wouldn't get three years, the absolute worst I could get is deferred adjudication. I could plead innocent, scum, because I told the proprietor of the storage facility what I had done, but only her. She couldn't prove I was there she couldn't prove I said that to her, the police can't prove I was there, nobody can. Hell, the police didn't even know anything happened. I am standing trial because of my wish to do what is right.

And had you read the comment you posted on top of, you would have seen that I have a lawyer, one who took my case for free, because he feels I'm a good man, worth supporting. He's not court appointed. He's a very high dollar power attorney, who saw potential and decided to work with it. Also, had you read the comment you posted on top of, you would have seen that I am looking at a Pre-Trial Diversion... i.e. this goes away, I don't have to plead anything on it, and it's over.

Lastly, there's nothing blown out of proportion in anything I've said. I don't want to feel 'gangsta', I'm a 6'3" white computer genius, who currently has a contract with an organization to build an encrypted stenographic system onto a jump drive, in order to port data in and out of countries where the data would be illegal. I don't want jail time, retard. I want to get out of it if possible. I don't need 'street kredz' by going 'in 'tha jailhouse, yo'.

And can someone else who's well known around here put this clown back on his leash? Jesus Christ.