--- title: Woman Jailed for Opening Pringles in Store Before Paying description: An Irish woman who opened a can of Pringles in a store before paying for them was jailed for causing "criminal damage" to the chip tube. canonical: https://time.com/5467154/woman-jailed-opening-pringles/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-29T20:12:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:56:14.136Z og:title: Woman Jailed for Popping Open Pringles Before Paying og:description: Kathleen McDonagh was sentenced to two months in prison og:url: https://time.com/5467154/woman-jailed-opening-pringles/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ae27f150708c348/6989403d929fad17fcbf232f/pringles-can.jpg?branch=production&width=509&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 509 og:image:height: 286 og:image:alt: Pringles-Can og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Woman Jailed for Popping Open Pringles Before Paying twitter:description: Kathleen McDonagh was sentenced to two months in prison twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ae27f150708c348/6989403d929fad17fcbf232f/pringles-can.jpg?branch=production&width=509&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Woman Who Popped Open Some Pringles Before Paying Will Be Jailed the Day the Fun Stops > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b899d338-b23a-4abf-9254-e0d8ac9e8559&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Nov 29, 2018 8:12 PM UTC  Pringles Pringles eskaylim/Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Nov 29, 2018 8:12 PM UTC An Irish woman who opened a can of [Pringles](http://www.extracrispy.com/food/4481/pringles-auctioning-thanksgiving-dinner-chips-for-charity) in a store before paying for it has been jailed for causing damage to the [chip tube](http://time.com/3983258/chips-acrylamide/), according to the [_Irish Times_](https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/district-court/woman-jailed-for-causing-criminal-damage-to-packet-of-pringles-1.3712604). After 25-year-old Kathleen McDonagh popped the Pringles while waiting in the self-checkout line of a Tesco store in Cork from which she had previously been barred, she was sentenced to two months in prison for damaging the product. McDonagh told the court that she opened the can when she saw security approaching her because she thought they would be forced to let her pay for it. “As the security officers approached her she opened the Pringles and removed the foil top and she said, ‘I opened it so you have to leave me pay for it,'” Police inspector Ronan Kennelly told Judge Brian O’Shea of the Dec. 27, 2016 incident. “It was not fit for resale with a loss of €1.50\. She said she wanted to buy the Pringles but she had no permission to be in the store.” McDonagh had 31 previous convictions including 14 for theft and two for criminal damage. She has also been convicted of handling stolen property. McDonagh’s defense asked for leniency because she’s five months pregnant and a newlywed. However, Judge O’Shea said that it was difficult to see her actions as “anything but smart alec behavior” before leveling a four-month sentence with two months suspended. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5467154/woman-jailed-opening-pringles/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5467154/woman-jailed-opening-pringles/"},"headline":"Woman Who Popped Open Some Pringles Before Paying Will Be Jailed the Day the Fun Stops","datePublished":"2018-11-29T20:12:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:56:14.136Z","description":"Kathleen McDonagh was sentenced to two months in prisons","url":"https://time.com/5467154/woman-jailed-opening-pringles/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Crime","Bizarre"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ae27f150708c348/6989403d929fad17fcbf232f/pringles-can.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ae27f150708c348/6989403d929fad17fcbf232f/pringles-can.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pringles-Can","caption":"Pringles","creditText":"eskaylim/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5467154/woman-jailed-opening-pringles/","name":"Woman Who Popped Open Some Pringles Before Paying Will Be Jailed the Day the Fun Stops"}}]}] ```