Anthony Garcia collected more than $30,000 in unemployment--not bad when you consider he was sitting in a Los Angeles jail serving a sentence for murder. "It's pretty appalling when you think about somebody sitting in jail collecting unemployment," Captain Mike Parker, spokesman for the Los Angeles Sheriff's department said in a report by the Los Angeles Times.  "Sitting in jail" is yes, appalling.  "Sitting in jail for murder"?  There's probably a stronger word for that. 

The Times reports that Garcia's father and girlfriends (yes, plural) faces charges for cashing in the $1,600 in unemployment checks that Garcia was receiving between October 2008 and March 2010 and that the funds were "used to benefit a criminal gang" and were shared with a few of Garcia's incarcerated gang members. As MSNBC notes, the California's Employment Development Department says it is illegal to cash in unemployment checks while in jail, but it's unclear whether or not Garcia would face additional charges. 

As it turns out, Garcia isn't actually a new story to The Atlantic Wire. We had written about his unusual story last year where the tattoo depiction of a murder on his chest eventually led to his conviction and arrest. Though, we're kind of hoping that this is the last "appalling" story we hear from Garcia for the near future. 

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at aabadsantos at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Alexander Abad-Santos