Buying stolen hot tub nets 3 years' probation
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 29-year-old city woman charged with buying a stolen hot tub that was to be donated to the Make-a-Wish Foundation has been placed on three years' probation.
Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sentenced Tasha Petaccio, of Homestead Avenue, on Wednesday on the charge of receiving stolen property to which she had pleaded guilty and told her she'd be imprisoned for 18 months if she violates probation.
Petaccio told the judge she bought the tub for $1,500 in cash from a man she had met at a West Side bar. "I was just trying to get a good deal. I should have known better," Petaccio told the judge.
The tub, valued at $6,000, had been stolen from Caribbean Pools and Hot Tubs on Mahoning Avenue, which had intended to donate it to the foundation, said J. Michael Thompson, assistant county prosecutor.
After receiving a tip, police found the tub April 24 in Petaccio's yard, and it was donated intact to the foundation, which fulfills wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses, Thompson said.