Spotted but Not Caught

My question involves criminal law for the state of: ma
Someone spotted me shoplifting, but didn't stop me, followed me to my car think they got my license plate, I used my debit card for another purchase, can they trace it back to me and charge me or am I okay?It was a stupid thing to do but had no food for my family.

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can they trace it back to me and charge me

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Yes, they can, and they have up to a year to do so.

Whether or not they will, however, no one can say.

You'd do well to stay away from that store.

Thanks, I feel so horrible but needed milk and formula and don't qualify for any help. I hope this economy picks up I am recently unemployed and having a hard time here. Hopefully the year will go by quickly.

It also depends on the value of what you stole as to how much effort they put into it. If it was expensive, they will spend more time to get you.
They may also go ahead and file a police report on it so that a. if you come back to the store and they recognize you, they can call the police and have you picked up or b. you come back and steal again, they have the additional report for more charges.

Ok. I'll just stay away from the store, hopefully no summons will come and I can get a job.

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Quoting LawResearcherMissy

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Yes, they can, and they have up to a year to do so.

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Missy, are you referring to the SOL for the state of MA or some other rule that stores commonly follow in cases of shoplifting?

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Quoting alisa78

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Missy, are you referring to the SOL for the state of MA or some other rule that stores commonly follow in cases of shoplifting?

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She is probably basing her response on the value of the merchandise constituting a misdemeanor, which has a SOL of 1 year for every jurisdiction I'm aware of. If it was enough to be a felony, it would depend on what exact statute they charged the person with to determine what the SOL is.

SOL for MA is 6 years for a misdemeanor crime.

http://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com...sdemeanors.htm

For a few states it is 1-2 years. And then there are a couple states where SOL for a misdemeanor is 10 years.

But my question is: are there specific SOL for specific misdemeanor crimes, such as for example, shoplifting? Or do all misdemeanors fall under the same SOL in any one state?

You are correct, Alisa.

I had half a dozen things going on at once, and was looking at the wrong tab. Thanks for the correction.

No problem. I only corrected you because I wanted to know if you meant some rule other than SOL. But your answer was still pretty accurate. I have yet to hear of the case in which somebody was charged for a minor shoplifting crime that he/she did 1.5 years ago. If LPs want to follow up on something, they will do that sooner rather than later.

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If LPs want to follow up on something, they will do that sooner rather than later.

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Typically, yes, though in at least one instance that I'm aware of, it has happened that the company didn't prosecute for about 6 months.

(Of course, the person they prosecuted was a habitual thief, and they were deliberately letting her hang herself with her own rope, as it were.)