Last week, an elected official from a small South Jersey town staged a one man protest against rising prices and poor economic times. Unfortunately for Councilman Bill Ackerman of Galloway Township, New Jersey, the protest came in the form of trying to save a few dollars on the purchase of beer...by shoplifting from a local liquor store.

According to the Press of Atlantic City, Ackerman was caught on videotape stealing cans of Budweiser from the store's refrigerator. The owners of Philadelphia Liquors filed a formal complaint against Ackerman, claiming that he visited the store between three and four times a day since November.

The store's owner, Anita Patel, claims that Ackerman would usually purchase one 12-ounce can of beer (priced at a whopping $1.16) while stealing another two. Ackerman was issued a summons for fourth degree shoplifting; the case is currently being reviewed by the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office.

It turns out that a few wayward cans of Bud might be the least of Ackerman's problems. "[He] is having problems personally, financially and he has not worked in a while, like a lot of people in this economy. It's a shame," fellow councilman Keith Hartman told The Press. "If what he did is illegal, it's inexcusable and he should step down, but he's innocent until proven guilty."

The Press reports that Ackerman's home, about 2 miles away from Philadelphia Liquors, is currently in foreclosure.

Suspecting Ackerman of shoplifting, but having trouble believing he could actually be guilty, Philadelphia Liquors owner Anita Patel set up a surveillance camera to catch Ackerman red handed. After seeing his sticky fingers for herself, Patel confronted and offered him a compromise. She would forget about the shoplifting incident if he agreed to pay off the $1,015 tab he had accumulated at the store. Ackerman did not respond to Patel's offer for five days, at which point she contacted the authorities.

Wait, it gets better. Ackerman was last employed at the now-defunct "Get Your Ad Rolling" advertising agency. The company's policy was to provide executives like Ackerman a salary advance as a means to cover expenses. A portion of Ackerman's earnings would then be reimbursed to the company to cover the advance. One problem came up during Ackerman's tenure however, according to Get Your Ad Rolling owner Gary Mielke; Ackerman took a $3,500 advance and promptly disappeared.

According to The Press, Ackerman was court-ordered this past February to pay off the debt in monthly installments of $200. Mielke claims that Ackerman has since ignored this order and he is still waiting for his money.

"When we went to arbitration, he was crying in our laps about how he's sorry and knows he was wrong, but he hasn't paid a dime. He owes us a lot of money," Mielke told reporters.

All of this would be pathetically hilarious if the pathetic part didn't so heavily outweigh the hilarity. Last week The Press of Atlantic City reported that Ackerman, facing everything from home foreclosure to public humiliation, checked himself into an undisclosed rehab facility.

"He is a good man, we all make mistakes for whatever reason," wife Sherry Ackerman told The Press.

Galloway Township Solicitor Michael Blee addressed the Ackerman situation in a statement to the press.

"Councilman Ackerman has voluntarily taken the first step in addressing a serious problem. We ask that you keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers," the statement read.

Mrs. Ackerman also told reporters that she would be paying Anita Patel the $1,015 balance her husband owed Philadelphia Liquors.

So what does this sad little story from the Jersey Shore have to do with the larger issues that face our government everyday? In a nutshell, everything and nothing. One minor local politician's personal drama is nothing when you compare it to some of the scandals public servants with a national profile have found themselves embroiled in. A couple of stolen cans of Bud aren't exactly Iran Contra after all. But this story does raise some serious questions about just who exactly we elect to represent us at every level from Town Hall to Capitol Hill.

What this story reveals is our tendency to give those in power the benefit of the doubt, even when they clearly don't deserve it. Why did Anita Patel allow Bill Ackerman to accumulate a $1,015 tab and turn a blind eye to his blatant shoplifting until she could ignore it no more?

"We didn't check because I know he's a councilman. We didn't believe it," Patel told The Press of Atlantic City.

And how did Ackerman, a man with no advertising experience, land a job at an ad agency that provided him with $3,500 to do business? Gary Mielke told The Press he thought Ackerman's political connections might bring in some new clients. Does this mean that these people deserved the treatment they received from Ackerman? Probably not, but that doesn't mean they bear no responsibility.

While he's in rehab, Ackerman will probably learn about enablers, the type of people that don't support his destructive behavior but don't do anything to stop it either. There is no excuse for elected officials abusing their power, but there is even less of an excuse for those who hand them the power to let it happen.

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