Appetite disorder lessens penalty for food thief
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- A California man with a rare genetic disorder that gives him an insatiable appetite has pleaded no contest to breaking into houses to steal food and other belongings.
The San Luis Obispo County district attorney said in a statement Thursday that because of the condition, 20-year-old Tyler Jarvis was allowed to enter the pleas to five misdemeanors and get probation and treatment.
Jarvis was initially charged with felonies that could have led to jail time.
Prosecutors say they looked closely at his case to reach a just outcome. They say people who have unmonitored Prader-Willi Syndrome will often badly overeat and go to great lengths seeking food.
The Prader-Willi Syndrome Association reportedly wrote proseuctors on Jarvis' behalf, asking for the case to be dismissed, reports the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
According to the paper, Jarvis' mother monitors his food intake, keeps food in his house in padlocked refrigerators and secures doors to the home with double-sided deadbolts because of her son's tendency to leave the home and steal food from neighbor's homes.
In one of the incidents in which Jarvis was charged, in September 2014, he reportedly stacked two ice chests on top of each other to enter a neighbor's home and steal frozen burritos and vanilla ice cream.
When a forensic psychiatrist interviewed him on the balcony of his home, he reportedly began to cry because he could smell food but couldn't get to it, the psychiatrist testified at a pre-trial hearing.
Jarvis has agreed to pay restitution to three victims, serve three years of probation and get residential treatment.