A Man In France Is Going To Jail For Eight Months After Stealing And Selling Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now” Re-Release

The Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) re-release hasn’t even come out yet, but the Taylor Swift album has already claimed its first victim. Although, this time, it’s not an ex. A French warehouse worker has been sentenced to months of prison time for stealing and selling some of the new-slash-old Taylor albums ahead of the July 7 release date. Damn, John Mayer had better prepare for his comeuppance once this re-release hits, but at least he won’t go to jail.

The re-release of Taylor’s hugely successful 2010 album will undoubtedly get her more millions of dollars on top of the millions from her Eras Tour she’s currently on, so Taylor Swift will be shitting money by the time this year is over. WHAT ELSE IS NEW!?! One worker at the French branch of MPO vinyl pressings came upon many albums and stole ten copies, trying to sell them online before he was caught. via Uproxx:

According to French newspaper Ouest-France and a news report shared by Charts In France, the 43-year-old temporary worker was caught trying to sell 10 copies of the yet-to-be-released record online after absconding with them from the warehouse. His translated account says he was unpacking pallets and several records fell out of a box. Recognizing the name-brand sales potential of Taylor Swift and facing apparently substantial debt, he took 10 copies home, putting out a classified ad selling them at 25 euros each. After the first two were sold, he raised his price to 50(!) euros.

He’s clearly an idiot. Fifty euros for a leaked Taylor album? The tour tickets are going for like $1000+ for psycho die-hards; he could have got WAY more! But he was turned in by an HR manager at his job, and when the police arrived to arrest him, he allegedly tried to escape through his home’s rooftop. If you’re wondering why he’d try to run from the cops like El Chapo for some Taylor albums, it’s because he’s a repeat offender, which is why he has been sentenced to eight months in prison:

According to Charts In France, the man is a repeat offender, having been convicted 24 times for theft, fraud, drug trafficking, and other offenses, leading to the eight-month sentence. He’ll also have to pay back the vinyl manufacturing company, with a future hearing to determine just how much he now owes.

The branch also made a statement about the break-in, and the cops are still looking for the albums that were successfully sold:

MPO says there “are jobs and millions of euros at stake,” should Universal pull its contract as a result of a leak. Two copies of the album remain at large and authorities are asking whoever has them to come forward or risk prosecution.

There are two stolen copies out there. So if you have a stolen copy of the album, either never speak of it again or send it back in an unmarked envelope while wearing gloves and make sure you wear a disguise when dropping it off at the post office. Do not get traced back to this since it’s all kinds of embarrassing to get caught with a bootleg Taylor Swift album!

Pic: Doug Peters/PA Images/INSTARimages/Cover Images