Does he get a `cell' phone?

5/4/2001

Here's another case you can file away under Quirky Justice.

A California man was convicted of passing himself off as Tiger Woods, the game's greatest golfer, to acquire some $17,000 worth of goods, including a 70-inch television, some stereos, and a used luxury car. Here's the strange part: Because he had a police record, the man was sentenced to a prison term of 200 years to life. Yes, 200 to life.

He was sentenced under California's “third strike” law, which allows virtually no wiggle room for repeat offenders.

Two hundred years to life, of course, means death in prison, in this case for theft. He didn't kill anybody; he took some stuff under false pretenses.

We certainly make no case for the guy, who used Tiger Woods formal name, Eldrick T. Woods, and Woods' Social Security number and birth date to obtain a California driver's license and credit cards, and who managed to pull it off even though authorities say he looks nothing like the world's most famous athlete, a star who has one of the most recognizable faces on the planet.

The thief's a scoundrel and deserves prison.

But it's ironic nonetheless. He gets 200 to life, while O.J. Simpson is out there scouring the golf courses of America in search of his wife's killer, with nothing to report so far.