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Felony count over 43 cents' worth of Mountain Dew is dropped

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania prosecutors have dropped a felony theft charge against a man who underpaid for a soda by 43 cents.

The Patriot-News reported Tuesday that prosecutors dropped the theft charge against Joseph Sobolewski.

Sobolewski slapped $2 on the counter of an Exxon store in Duncannon in August and walked out, thinking it was $1.50.

He says he didn't realize that an advertised discount of two bottles for $3 did not apply to a single bottle.

The Associated Press reported that the soda cost $2.29, so, including tax, he was short 43 cents.

State troopers arrested him, and he spent a week in jail after a judge ordered him held on a $50,000 cash-only bond, the AP reported.

District Attorney Andrew Bender did not answer requests for comment.

According to the AP, Sobolewski was facing seven years in prison under Pennsylvania's three-strikes law since he had already had committed two theft charges in the past 10 years.

The news outlet reported those two charges stem from when he didn't pay for a gas tank and stole shoes from a store.