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My question involves criminal law for the state of: Pennsylvania
It's been almost two years since I shoplifted, and I recently got a debit card for the first time. I haven't activated or used it yet though because I'm afraid that the police might track me through it. Is this possible? I don't go into the stores that I shoplifted in at all.
A debit card is issued through your checking account. If they wanted you your checking account is a paper trace. Are you wanted? Have you paid the store back? If everything is taken care of, chill out!
Well I was caught one time and paid the civil demand and everything was fine, but the other two times I wasn't caught.
You are worried because you stole and were not caught. Do you think there is a warrant out for your arrest?
I don't believe so... how do I find out? I mean the one store that I stole from one other time was the one that I got caught in and they didn't prosecute me for the other time, so I just assumed I got lucky and wasn't caught. However, the other store, I had gone in multiple times after I shoplifted and I wasn't stopped or followed around that I was aware of.
You can go online and see if your county has a listing of arrest warrants. See if your name is there. Have renewed your license since then? It would have showed up there. Have you been stopped for any traffic violation since? You would have known then for sure. Now, you see that crime does not pay, because you are living with a bad conscience.
Well I got my license for the first time about six months after I stole both times. Would it show then? I got pulled over in May, but wasn't ticketed or anything. Would they have told me then?
And trust me, I stress about it every. single. day. It definitely wasn't worth it whatsoever. At all!
The cases when you stole and was not caught, how much was the merchandise valued at and do you still have it? If this happened two yrs. ago and you were wanted they would have known then in May when you were pulled over.
They were both about $11, and no.
The guilty flee where no man pursueth....
I think it is safe to say you will not be shoplifting again....
Keep your nose clean. Continue to avoid those stores for a while longer.
Believe me - I did it 1 time, got caught, and 18 months later....I'll be sound asleep and remember "Miss, come with us please". Then how it felt to be escorted back into the store and their security room. To be photographed. To have the cops called. To have to withdraw $2000 from my bank account to pay for the Civil Demand, Court Costs and Fines, and an attorney. The humiliation of being escorted to my car by the police officer, and having to report to the police post for a MugShot and Fingerprints.
I'm lucky, the store allowed me to return after I wrote them. But I hate shopping in the one I was caught in, I just feel like everyone is staring at me.
No, I absolutely will not. Getting caught one time was enough for me. I stressed about it to the point I made myself sick earlier this year because I was so worried about getting caught for the other two times. It's a huge regret. And I hate myself for doing it because I really want to use my debit card :p It's just... I don't even know what I was thinking. I guess I got caught up in the moment.
I'm just still worried that I'll get caught.
Look.
If the police knew you were the shoplifter, they wouldn't need to wait for you to use a debit card to come arrest you, they'd just do it.
And if they don't know you were the shoplifter, how would your using a debit card indentify you as such?
I guess you have a point there. I just get worried about the littlest things and I didn't know if they could track me somehow even though I've never had a debit card before.