Image : Luke Plunkett

Sometimes, it is better to let dreams be dreams. A 19-year-old man from Nice, France learned that the hard way when he got the wild idea to take a PlayStation 4 off the shelf of a supermarket, walk to the fruit section, weigh it, print out a price tag sticker, put it on the box, and then buy the console for the price of a 6-pound bag of produce.




French publication L’est Republicain reports that the young man, named Adel, was recently sentenced to four months in prison for pulling off The Great PlayStation Fruit Heist Of 2018 back in September. Normally, he would’ve had to pay €340, or around $389, but his produce-scented ruse brought the price down to €9, or just over $10. He used a self-checkout line, which probably helped him avoid employee scrutiny, and he went on to sell the partially purloined PlayStation for €100, or $114, in order to pay for a train ticket.



Adel tried to do the same thing again the next day, only to get caught by police. Late last week, he did not appear in court in Montbéliard, France and was sentenced to four months in prison, though the sentence is suspended, so he’ll only have to serve it if he re-offends. At this point, he probably wishes he’d just bought a banana.




Correction - 6:30 PM, 1/29/19: A previous version of this story did not specify that the sentence was suspended. That error has since been corrected.