A homeless man in Mississippi committed a blatant crime in order to get a night in jail as temperatures plunged.
The man, whose name has not been released, entered the Adams County Sheriff’s Office early Thursday morning and asked to shelter in jail given the subfreezing temperatures, according to the Natchez Democrat. When deputies told him he was not allowed to stay because of liability issues, the man took matters into his own hands.
“He said, ‘I will make you lock me up then,’” Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten said.
The man then left the office and began to smash the windows of the courthouse with his elbow before he allegedly returned to the sheriff’s office and used a table to bust out the windows of the lobby.
He was arrested and taken to jail.
“It shows the need for some kind of shelter for the homeless,” Patten said. “If there was a shelter, he would not have to have committed a crime to have been able to get out of the cold and could have also had a hot meal.”
Patten said that the jail couldn’t take in people seeking warmth because of the threat of lawsuits.
“We can get sued,” he explained. “The situation shows the community needs to have a real conversation about homelessness in the area.”
