By Jeff Hawkes
Intelligencer Journal
Copyright 2007 Lancaster Newspapers, Inc.
LANCASTER, Pa. — Summoned to the high school office, Michael Rosado, a conscientious sophomore, was hoping he had done something good.
Then he saw his mother and a police officer, and his heart dropped.
What followed was a brush with the law Rosado, now 19 and an honors student at Lock Haven University, would be happy to forget - if not for the lessons the episode offered in reconciliation, compassion and the meaning of justice.
The story starts in Aisle 3 of Amelia’s Grocery Outlet on Lincoln Highway East. It was March 2003, and Rosado, a few weeks shy of turning 16, was with a friend who saw a wand lighter for sale and couldn’t resist picking it up.
Rosado’s friend lit the lighter and waved it. Rosado took it and did the same. “We were 15 years old and so dumb,” Rosado said.
Rosado’s mother entered the aisle and grabbed her son to make him put down the lighter.
Rosado went to pay for an iced tea. That’s when someone spotted smoke in Aisle 3. The store made an announcement asking customers to exit.
Before Rosado’s mother drove away with her son and his friend, a store employee came up to the car and asked if they knew anything about the fire. Rosado told the man, “No,” but he left worried.
Jeff Good, chief operating officer for the local Amelia’s stores, says the fire wasn’t as big a deal as it could have been because of quick-thinking employees. While one used an extinguisher to put out burning items on a shelf, others evacuated customers. He credits an assistant manager for following two suspicious teens and getting the license number of the car they were in.
Some weeks later, police showed up at McCaskey High School to question Rosado and his friend. Rosado couldn’t deny he had played with a lighter. He accepted responsibility while insisting he didn’t mean to start a fire.
Rosado found appearing in juvenile court on an arson charge a sobering experience. Deeply embarrassed for his foolishness in the store, he offered an apology. The judge placed the boys on probation and ordered each to pay $750 in restitution.
“I kind of matured after that,” Rosado said. “I watched everything I did.”
The story could have ended there, except management at Amelia’s took the extra step of meeting with Rosado and his friend to talk about the fire and its ramifications. A member of Lancaster Area Victim Offender Reconciliation Program brought the parties together for a conference.
In the face-to-face meeting, Good talked about how the fire could have been much worse, but he wasn’t vindictive.
“We were disappointed and confused as to why two students who supposedly were in good grade-standing would do something like this,” Good said. “But young people make mistakes. We all do.”
Good recognized it wouldn’t be easy for the teens to each pay $750. Amelia’s president Mike Mitchell suggested a sympathetic approach to restitution. He decided the boys could pay the money but then get it back for expenses related to higher education.
Working irregular hours at a Nike outlet and borrowing $500 from his mother, Rosado paid his debt to Amelia’s by the summer of 2005. Amelia’s, in turn, honored its pledge after Rosado entered Lock Haven, where he plans to major in criminal justice.
Good said his Christian faith teaches compassion for those who do wrong. He’s confident Rosado has learned from the mistake, and Good said he values the experience for being an opportunity to put faith into practice. “I think it worked out the way it should,” Good said.
Where once there were anger, shame and disappointment, now, in their place, are understanding, grace and gratitude.