ADVERTISEMENT

Every day, people engage in various activities that may not strictly adhere to the rules but are generally perceived as innocent and acceptable. More folks than any police station could handle would be found guilty of jaywalking each day, and don't get us started about messing with other people's mail...

To learn about all those "invisible" or "innocent" crimes that we do commit without giving them too much thought, u/Wowthatscrazyyylmao recently pondered "What’s an innocent crime that people commit?" on r/AskReddit. And boy did they get some interesting answers that we're excited to share with you.

#1

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Apparently getting abortion. F**k you GQP.

alphamikedelta , Dmitry Schemelev Report

You might have heard about the United States government's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion in 14 states after almost 50 years, blowing all other "innocent" crimes right out of the water. While classifying this as a punishable offense may seem cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs insane in the modern era, there are several other seemingly bewildering laws that people have pointed out in this thread.

To kick things off, let's take a journey to the land of the rising sun. While Japan is known for its unique and quirky aspects, the topic of having a clone takes things to an even more peculiar level. Surprisingly, Japan has prohibited human cloning experiments since 2001. If anyone attempts to create a clone, they could face severe consequences, such as a 10-year prison sentence or a hefty fine of ¥10,000,000 (approximately $70,660).

#2

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Selecting 'I have read and agree to the terms and conditions' without actually reading a single word. The biggest heist happening daily.

Wpstar_it , NordWood Themes Report

ADVERTISEMENT

As mentioned earlier, the Japanese also have some interesting rules regarding their mailboxes. While it may seem like a normal and helpful gesture to pass your neighbor's misaddressed mail to them, Article 42 of the Postal Law sees it differently.

This law was established to safeguard the privacy of both the sender and recipient. If any misaddressed mail ends up in your mailbox, the proper procedure is to send it back and let the post office handle it. However, in all seriousness, you probably won't face charges for simply returning your neighbor's letter, unless they intentionally frame you for sabotage.

#3

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes A poor person stealing a small amount of baby food. I'd see it when I worked at a market and I'd just look the other way.

Jugales , Rocky Mountain Feline Rescue Report

#4

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes It's illegal to pass out food to homeless people in some cities

jarchack , Nathan Dumlao Report

Speaking of strange laws, North Carolina is weird about bingo. If you’re a bingo lover, you’ll hate to find out that a game cannot last more than five hours in North Carolina. It’s even worse if you like a little glass of red while playing, because, in the "Tar Heel State," it is illegal to be intoxicated while playing a round of bingo.

ADVERTISEMENT
#5

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Apparently being 5 years old and having a lemonade stand

lightspinnerss , Marina Grynykha Report

#6

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes In Sweden, if a stone (anywhere) has ever been moved by a human and then left in the new place for more than 12 months it is illegal to move that stone again, because it has become a cultural artifact. This absurd law is actually enforced and creates a lot of problems for the people living in country side, but since laws are written by people in the cities it is not seen as a problem. The original reason for the law is to protect centuries old stonewalls. But because of how it is written it is used against people who for example temporarily move a stone to be able to reach that area. If the work is not finished within one year and the stone has not been moved in the mean time it is then illegal to move it back. Very innocent crime. Not a very innocent law, though. 

GlobusGlobus , Mor Shani Report

ADVERTISEMENT

If you thought the previous "innocent" crimes sounded silly, Vermont takes the cake with a truly peculiar rule stating that women in need of false teeth must first obtain permission from their husbands. As if they don't have enough regulations for their bodies...

#7

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Here in Japan, it’s illegal to hand your neighbour’s misaddressed mail to them. In practice, we all do it.

Maso_TGN , Tima Miroshnichenko Report

#8

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes What jurisdiction are we talking?

Because in Singapore chewing gum is a crime.

In Germany, if you run out of fuel on the Autobahn that's a crime.

You can't take a selfie beside a statue of Buddha in Sri Lanka.

EveryoneIsADose , Quinten de Graaf Report

ADVERTISEMENT

The oddity originated from the 1856 case of Gilman v. Andrus, where a man was obligated to pay for "a plate of mineral teeth" for his wife. Subsequently, the Vermont legislature established a common law mandating women to provide written permission from their husbands to dentists before getting dentures. Despite its historical roots, this law is no longer given much attention by residents in modern times. Good riddance.

ADVERTISEMENT
#9

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes For the kids saying they’re old enough to make an account on a website/app while being to young.

Vaporc_ , Thomas Park Report

#10

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes putting prescription pills in a daily reminder case ( M T W TH F S S)

krautspieler , Laurynas Mereckas Report

#11

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Exploring abandoned buildings. My old school shut down years ago and my friends and I used to walk around in there filming videos and audio and collecting stuff that got left behind (which was almost everything, the whole library was still the way it was when they left)

Limp-Salamander6255 , Tara Evans Report

#12

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Getting a fish drunk…

That’s an Ohio State law. It’s illegal to get a fish drunk.

No_Hunt7394 , Sebastian Pena Lambarri Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#13

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Picking up bird feathers. Obviously it’s not really a crime, but under the migratory bird act, because you can’t PROVE where you got it from, you also can’t prove that you didn’t poach it. It was made in response to massive bird poaching around the turn of the 1900s for women’s hats but… also massive amounts of bird hunting in general, which was causing the severe decline in hundreds of species. After all, we know what happened to the passenger pigeons. As a result it’s actually a severe crime (thousands and thousands of dollars in fines) to own bird feathers, but obviously it’s not one that’s actually convicted on much nowadays.

MadameCat , Alexander Sinn Report

#14

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Apparently in the Aussie city of Brisbane sleeping in your car even if it’s due to fatigue is considered camping in public and thus illegal.

Slavx97 , Elvis Bekmanis Report

#15

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes I drive home from work in the middle of the night, and there's one left turn I have to make at a red light every night that is infuriatingly badly timed for that hour. The pharmacy on that corner has been closed up for an hour by the time I get there and the parking lot is always empty, so driving through that to save myself 45 interminable seconds is as victimless a crime as one can commit, if it even is a crime.

gorka_la_pork , Keagan Henman Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#16

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes jaywalking.

frogs_69 , refargotohp Report

#17

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes as a server, not inputting my cash tips on my taxes; actually didn’t even know you even needed to do that until a few years ago, after i had been working in the food industry for well over six years. evidently, none of my coworkers were aware of this either

lavaniani , Jessie McCall Report

#18

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes In the US low effort speeding (1-10 mph over posted limits) is fairly common.

Aezetyr , Mauro Sbicego Report

#19

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Smoking weed in most of the world

Faded_chef , GRAS GRÜN Report

#20

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Leaving the car unlocked when unattended. Like going in to pay for your fuel. Apparently illegal in Aus.

MiddleConstruction84 , Szabolcs Toth Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#21

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Trespassing. Trespassing is an intent crime where knowledge of trespassing isn't required to be guilty or liable of trespassing. Simply intending to enter into land owned by another without permission, even on the mistaken belief that the land was public ,or that they had permission, or that they owned that part of the land, is not a valid defense against the fact of trespass.

We see this all the time when people are out walking around and cut through a parking lot as a means for short cutting their route. Many people think parking lots are inherently public property. But they are still owned by someone, that someone may choose to not allow unauthorized cut through, for safety reasons, maybe its a bank, or there's a private event with a liquor license requiring only authorized individuals on the property. Either way, the property owner has that right. No need to post signs, but in order for a trespass to be arrestable, the offender must be informed, told to leave and either refuse to leave or return later and reaffend.

NathanTPS , Greg Jewett Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#22

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Paying to watch one movie, then watching another one before leaving the theater.

NoblesCraig , Jake Hills Report

#23

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Not really sure how innocent it is since it's pretty much their State's only real revenue source but just about everybody (who owns a car) from Vancouver, Washington shops in Portland, Oregon whenever they can in order to not pay Sales tax even though it's illegal to not report/pay it as a Washington resident even when you are shopping out-of-State.

RRW359 , Sangga Rima Roman Selia Report

#24

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Dropping something off in someone's mailbox.

CosmicCommando , the blowup Report

#25

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Rolling through stop signs. Ain't no way we're stopping for the full 3 seconds...

slargle12 , Juli Kosolapova Report

#26

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Tasting grapes in the grocery store

Bizzlebanger , Lisa Summerour Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#27

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Piracy, especially when it comes to videogames. As time goes on games stop being sold and in some cases they are impossible to get except if you pay extremely inflated prices in the resell market. Often time companies won’t ever see another dime from that game, so it’s not really costing them any money. So why is it such a big deal?

AwesomeEevee133 , Cameron Bunney Report

#28

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Inputing “no bags” at the self checkout at the grocery store to avoid the $0.10 fee

FunPills , Adrien Delforge Report

#29

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Lack of public facilities means i p**s were i p**s

steroboros , Vadim Artyukhin Report

#30

People Share 30 Crimes That You Probably Don't Even Know Are Crimes Running a red light late at night when there is absolutely no traffic in sight

Content_Pool_1391 , Lawrence Chismorie Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda