How Many Prison Years Should a Sock Thief Get?

Though he had three prior theft strikes against him, Orange County's Dung Hoang Duong just couldn't help himself.

In November 2009, Duong entered a store, shoved a package of cheap socks into his pants and was detained by an observant security guard before he could leave.

A jury in Judge John Conley's courtroom found him guilty of shoplifting a month later, but Duong–who'd already been to prison twice–appealed his conviction.

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He claimed he'd paid for the socks only to watch the security guard steal and destroy the receipt prior to his arrest. It might have helped his case if he didn't have a long rap sheet for stealing. Appellate justices quickly rejected his argument.

For trying to steal $5 worth of socks, Duong–who is 46 years old–won a six-year trip to a California prison.

–R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

R. Scott Moxley

CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.

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