Community Service, Sale Of Pepsi Stock Part Of Sentence For Man In Can Scam

FLINT (WWJ) - Was karma at play in the sentencing of a Michigan man who had an elaborate return can-and-bottle scam running for years?

John Woodfill, 70, of Flint pleaded guilty to illegally returning 10,000 or more out-of-state non-returnable beverage containers and part of his sentencing involved selling stock he held in Pepsico -- (as in a can of soda) as part of $400,000 restitution and 450 hours of community service.

The State Attorney General's office says from April 2012 to April 2015 Woodfill bought no-deposit cans from Indiana for pennies a pound, then cashed them in at grocery stores in Michigan. He even printed phony bar codes so the cans would be accepted in the automatic return machines. This went on for three years until an informant tipped off state police.

A jail sentence is on hold while he's on probation for three years.

The scheme conjures up images from a memorable two-part episode of Seinfeld in which Kramer and Newman hatch a scheme to take empty bottles from New York to Michigan --where they could double their profits. In the episodes -laughter, not entanglement in the legal system, ensues.