Dear Kevin,To satisfy any of you Challenge!rs sense of closure on this matter ;-), I searched and found this story on MSNBC.com from November 21, 2000:
THE 38-YEAR-OLD ADVERTISING executive, convicted of squeezing, poking and crumbling $1,000 worth of baked goods during criminally finicky shopping sprees in suburban Philadelphia, was sentenced this week to 180 days' probation - 90 days each for the bread and the cookies.
He was also ordered to pay $1,000 restitution. 'You engaged in behavior that was not just odd, it was criminal,' the Philadelphia Inquirer quoted Bucks County Judge David Heckler as telling Feldman at a Monday sentencing hearing. 'You caused harm to people.'
Sensationalized as the 'Cookie Crumbler' by local news outlets, Feldman was accused of manhandling bread and cookies at suburban supermarkets over a two-year period that ended in 1999, when he moved to Las Vegas.
Police charged him with two counts of criminal mischief. He denied wrongdoing at a September trial, even though footage from in-store surveillance cameras showed him poking and prodding boxes of cookies and running his hands over dozens of loaves of bread.
Two bakeries claimed that Feldman caused irreparable damage to products worth nearly $8,000 in total.
Feldman's wife testified at trial that he was simply a picky shopper who wanted to ensure freshness for his family.
The judge said his actions rose to the level of vandalism and worried that a recent psychiatric report quoted the accused as saying the real bread squeezer was still on the loose.
But the sentencing hearing did produce an admission, the Inquirer reported. 'I do touch too much bread, yes, more than the next person,' the newspaper quoted Feldman as telling the court, with a lowered head and a slight voice.Ahh, I feel much better now, knowing that Sam's gotten his just desserts . . . ;-)
-- Áine