A Pembroke man was fined $500 in Magistrates’ Court after he admitted stealing $19 of socks.Rudy Smith, 40, pleaded guilty to one count of stealing from PriceRite on April 28. Crown counsel Maria Sofianos told the court that at around 2.15pm that day, staff at the store noticed Smith enter the store wearing a blue windbreaker and walk to where the socks were kept.The store’s manager said Smith was speaking on the phone and appeared to be describing the socks to someone on the other end of the line.A short time later, the manager saw Smith walk past the cashiers and out of the store with the windbreaker zipped all the way up.The manager confronted Smith outside the store and asked him what he had in his jacket.Smith denied having anything in the jacket and, when asked to unzip it, pulled the zipper two-thirds of the way down.The manager noticed a package of socks in the jacket, and escorted Smith to the building’s office until police arrived.Smith later admitted to the officers that he stole the socks, despite having enough money to pay for them on him.Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner noted that Smith has a long history of offences, including multiple charges of dishonesty, and fined the defendant $500.