Every day, people engage in various activities that may not strictly adhere to the rules but are generally perceived as innocent and acceptable. More folks than any police station could handle would be found guilty of jaywalking each day, and don't get us started about messing with other people's mail...
To learn about all those "invisible" or "innocent" crimes that we do commit without giving them too much thought, u/Wowthatscrazyyylmao recently pondered "What’s an innocent crime that people commit?" on r/AskReddit. And boy did they get some interesting answers that we're excited to share with you.
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You might have heard about the United States government's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion in 14 states after almost 50 years, blowing all other "innocent" crimes right out of the water. While classifying this as a punishable offense may seem cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs insane in the modern era, there are several other seemingly bewildering laws that people have pointed out in this thread.
To kick things off, let's take a journey to the land of the rising sun. While Japan is known for its unique and quirky aspects, the topic of having a clone takes things to an even more peculiar level. Surprisingly, Japan has prohibited human cloning experiments since 2001. If anyone attempts to create a clone, they could face severe consequences, such as a 10-year prison sentence or a hefty fine of ¥10,000,000 (approximately $70,660).
Selecting 'I have read and agree to the terms and conditions' without actually reading a single word. The biggest heist happening daily.
As mentioned earlier, the Japanese also have some interesting rules regarding their mailboxes. While it may seem like a normal and helpful gesture to pass your neighbor's misaddressed mail to them, Article 42 of the Postal Law sees it differently.
This law was established to safeguard the privacy of both the sender and recipient. If any misaddressed mail ends up in your mailbox, the proper procedure is to send it back and let the post office handle it. However, in all seriousness, you probably won't face charges for simply returning your neighbor's letter, unless they intentionally frame you for sabotage.
A poor person stealing a small amount of baby food. I'd see it when I worked at a market and I'd just look the other way.
What's criminal is a poor person being forced to steal baby food!
It's illegal to pass out food to homeless people in some cities
Wow, this is just inhumane. What if I invited them to lunch? Because honey, if you can't stand watching me hand out a sandwich to a poor person, I will bring them to a restaurant and we will sit riiiight next to you...
Speaking of strange laws, North Carolina is weird about bingo. If you’re a bingo lover, you’ll hate to find out that a game cannot last more than five hours in North Carolina. It’s even worse if you like a little glass of red while playing, because, in the "Tar Heel State," it is illegal to be intoxicated while playing a round of bingo.
In Sweden, if a stone (anywhere) has ever been moved by a human and then left in the new place for more than 12 months it is illegal to move that stone again, because it has become a cultural artifact. This absurd law is actually enforced and creates a lot of problems for the people living in country side, but since laws are written by people in the cities it is not seen as a problem. The original reason for the law is to protect centuries old stonewalls. But because of how it is written it is used against people who for example temporarily move a stone to be able to reach that area. If the work is not finished within one year and the stone has not been moved in the mean time it is then illegal to move it back. Very innocent crime. Not a very innocent law, though.
But isn't the original moving of the stone already a crime? If you don'r have a habbit of the moving your stones in every 11 months, that is.
If you thought the previous "innocent" crimes sounded silly, Vermont takes the cake with a truly peculiar rule stating that women in need of false teeth must first obtain permission from their husbands. As if they don't have enough regulations for their bodies...
Here in Japan, it’s illegal to hand your neighbour’s misaddressed mail to them. In practice, we all do it.
What jurisdiction are we talking?
Because in Singapore chewing gum is a crime.
In Germany, if you run out of fuel on the Autobahn that's a crime.
You can't take a selfie beside a statue of Buddha in Sri Lanka.
You cannot drive blind folded in Alabama. In Louisiana you cannot send someone a surprise pizza. You cannot put donkeys in bathtubs in Arizona. In Connecticut, it’s illegal to kiss your spouse in public on a Sunday. In Oklahoma and Ohio: you can't make faces at a dog. In Michigan it's illegal to tie a crocodile or alligator to a fire hydrant.
The oddity originated from the 1856 case of Gilman v. Andrus, where a man was obligated to pay for "a plate of mineral teeth" for his wife. Subsequently, the Vermont legislature established a common law mandating women to provide written permission from their husbands to dentists before getting dentures. Despite its historical roots, this law is no longer given much attention by residents in modern times. Good riddance.
For the kids saying they’re old enough to make an account on a website/app while being to young.
putting prescription pills in a daily reminder case ( M T W TH F S S)
People really really have to stop generalizing and mention where they think it’s true because I guarantee you it is completely b******t in Europe where pills and drugs are NOT sold in a small orange container with the patient’s name, but in the manufacturer’s original packaging.
Exploring abandoned buildings. My old school shut down years ago and my friends and I used to walk around in there filming videos and audio and collecting stuff that got left behind (which was almost everything, the whole library was still the way it was when they left)
Getting a fish drunk…
That’s an Ohio State law. It’s illegal to get a fish drunk.
Picking up bird feathers. Obviously it’s not really a crime, but under the migratory bird act, because you can’t PROVE where you got it from, you also can’t prove that you didn’t poach it. It was made in response to massive bird poaching around the turn of the 1900s for women’s hats but… also massive amounts of bird hunting in general, which was causing the severe decline in hundreds of species. After all, we know what happened to the passenger pigeons. As a result it’s actually a severe crime (thousands and thousands of dollars in fines) to own bird feathers, but obviously it’s not one that’s actually convicted on much nowadays.
Apparently in the Aussie city of Brisbane sleeping in your car even if it’s due to fatigue is considered camping in public and thus illegal.
I drive home from work in the middle of the night, and there's one left turn I have to make at a red light every night that is infuriatingly badly timed for that hour. The pharmacy on that corner has been closed up for an hour by the time I get there and the parking lot is always empty, so driving through that to save myself 45 interminable seconds is as victimless a crime as one can commit, if it even is a crime.
In my state and I think some others, it is illegal to cut a parking lot or driveway etc just to dodge waiting at a traffic light. However if you just sort of stopped ever so briefly in one of the parking spaces on your way through then if you got stopped you could just say you got off the road to check your phone or something.
jaywalking.
why is this a shopping fail? is my BP broken. was my panda so bored and lazy they put the wrong title?
as a server, not inputting my cash tips on my taxes; actually didn’t even know you even needed to do that until a few years ago, after i had been working in the food industry for well over six years. evidently, none of my coworkers were aware of this either
In the US low effort speeding (1-10 mph over posted limits) is fairly common.
Smoking weed in most of the world
Last week the Scottish government announced it wants to decriminalise all drug possession for personal use - treating it as a crime isn't helping anyone. I think looking at the issue from a different perspective is a great idea rather than just keeping on a track that is proven to have little to no effect.
Leaving the car unlocked when unattended. Like going in to pay for your fuel. Apparently illegal in Aus.
Can confirm. I thought it was leaving it unlocked with the keys in the ignition - but that's just dumb wherever you are!
Trespassing. Trespassing is an intent crime where knowledge of trespassing isn't required to be guilty or liable of trespassing. Simply intending to enter into land owned by another without permission, even on the mistaken belief that the land was public ,or that they had permission, or that they owned that part of the land, is not a valid defense against the fact of trespass.
We see this all the time when people are out walking around and cut through a parking lot as a means for short cutting their route. Many people think parking lots are inherently public property. But they are still owned by someone, that someone may choose to not allow unauthorized cut through, for safety reasons, maybe its a bank, or there's a private event with a liquor license requiring only authorized individuals on the property. Either way, the property owner has that right. No need to post signs, but in order for a trespass to be arrestable, the offender must be informed, told to leave and either refuse to leave or return later and reaffend.
Not true anywhere in the world except the good old land of the non free.
Paying to watch one movie, then watching another one before leaving the theater.
Not really sure how innocent it is since it's pretty much their State's only real revenue source but just about everybody (who owns a car) from Vancouver, Washington shops in Portland, Oregon whenever they can in order to not pay Sales tax even though it's illegal to not report/pay it as a Washington resident even when you are shopping out-of-State.
Different sales taxes from state to state is crazy! I live in Australia with six states and two territories and there is ONE rate of sales tax, ONE rate of goods and services tax and ONE rate of income tax. Our constitution says that only the federal govt can raise and collect taxes. A proportion of the taxes the federal govt collects is given to the states and territories (lots of arguments about who gets how much, of course!)
Dropping something off in someone's mailbox.
In the US, at least, there's a provision or two in the federal code prohibiting someone from delivering something to someone else and pretending it was delivered by the USPS. This specific provision has been interpreted as prohibiting placing inside a mailbox, as the recipient might assume it was delivered by the USPS. As a result, we get a lot of ads taped to our mailboxes.
Rolling through stop signs. Ain't no way we're stopping for the full 3 seconds...
Piracy, especially when it comes to videogames. As time goes on games stop being sold and in some cases they are impossible to get except if you pay extremely inflated prices in the resell market. Often time companies won’t ever see another dime from that game, so it’s not really costing them any money. So why is it such a big deal?
I can only see this increasing as people realise "But I **DID** buy this game... I've already given the company my money... but I have to buy it again because there was an OS update? What???"
Inputing “no bags” at the self checkout at the grocery store to avoid the $0.10 fee
Lack of public facilities means i p**s were i p**s
Running a red light late at night when there is absolutely no traffic in sight
Who does that? It's very dangerous, how could you be sure there's not a cyclist or a pedestrian?
Running a red light is illegal at any hour, anytime, anywhere. Society has rules in order to remain a society, not a s*** show.
Except turning right or left on a red light. Is legal in some places and not it others.
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Running a red light is illegal at any hour, anytime, anywhere. Society has rules in order to remain a society, not a s*** show.
Except turning right or left on a red light. Is legal in some places and not it others.
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