An American travel advisory for St Kitts-Nevis gives warning only of petty crime.
The police tried to trace his lapse into petty crime.
They were also sent because of petty crime, like stealing food, or because they had missed school.
The lacklustre response of the police to such petty crimes creates a fertile recruiting ground for Jobbik, a far-right party, which campaigns against what it calls "gypsy crime".
Until recently the government was sceptical of the value of imprisoning people for petty crime; and the arguments against doing so remain as strong as they were two weeks ago.