Sharing My Story of Caught Shoplifting in California

My question involves criminal law for the state of: CA

Let me start by saying that I was arrested on September 3rd 2011 for shoplifting $104 worth of products from a chain clothing store in a mall in Southern California. I concealed the products in my bag, walked out of the store, the alarm rang, and I was asked to go back by the store employee.
I signed the civil demand letter and trespassing agreement. Police was called and I was giving a summon for court appearance on Oct 17th, 2011.

I am over 18. It was my first time getting in trouble with the law, but I am going to admit that it was not my first time shoplifting. My will was weak, I let my greed took over, and I learned a harsh lesson from this experience. However, the crying, fear, anxiety, depression, and suicide attempts aside, I had to take action in trying to save the rest of my life. This was the first site that I found, and from advices I have read here, I hired an a very reputable attorney to help me 3 days after the arrest. however, I also saw that many people here are wishing someone will come back and share their experience with the entire criminal prosecution process. So I decided to put my story out there for everyone. If there is anyone out there who need some advice, help or just happen to browse this post, I hope that they can take in some useful information and avoid making a horrible mistake like I did.

After my arrest, I spend 3 days researching theft laws of my county, programs available for first offenders, reading posts with personal stories, and reputable attorneys specialize in criminal defense and only practice in my county. I consulted 5 lawyers who had free consultations, and retained one for 2500.(all of them ranged from 1500 to 3500) I discussed my situation with the lawyer that due to my career of choice, my best and only option is to get a DA dismissal. A conviction of any sort will permanently ruin my chances of being hired. Knowing that, it seems particularly stupid of me to commit such a horrible crime. But he was assuring me that he believe there is a chance that he can help me get the case dismissed. He asked for a photograph of me, my school transcript, school applications and acceptance letter, and volunteer certificate to put together a profile.

He went to my arraingment on Oct 17th, and plead NOT GUILTY for me. The 2nd court date(pre-trial hearing) was on Nov 17th, he also attended that instead of me. However, he told me that the DA that day was not a great choice to get an offer from. Therefore, he asked for an extension, so the 3rd court date (another pre-trial hearing) is scheduled on Dec 5th, and we are hoping the next DA would be more ideal. Now I am spending all my energy on trying to keep my anxiety and dear under control and praying for the best. What happens after that, I dare not imagine.

If there is anything I want to share about the past 2 and half months of my life, I want to tell you that shoplifting, for whatever reason that you do it, it is wrong and it is NOT WORTH IT. I have other things in my life that I am proud of, but ever since the first time I shoplifted, I lost respect for myself, I see that shadow in my eyes everytime I look in the mirror. I have not been able to sleep one night without flashbacks of shame and guilt since the arrest. I feel like I am less of a person than my family and my friends, and I don't deserve anything from them. I sleep next to my boyfriend every night with this burning secret and I can't tell him. I look at him thinking that I will never have that perfect life we always planned because my career is ruined. If anyone out there that is going through the same things I am, I have 3 things I want to say:
1. It is okay to feel the way you feel right now, but you have to help yourself. The most important thing is to learn your lesson and help yourself. Be honest, don't make excuses, don't be in denial. Find the reason why you lost control and stop that behavior.
2. Second is to hire an attorney. Max your credit cards. Tell your family, or anyone who will help you, I know it is difficult. Telling my mother about it was the worst thing I had ever done to her, but you need to do it. Do your homework and find the best lawyer you can afford. No amount of money is more expensive than "NO CONVICTION" on your background. A lawyer told me this, "you are not hiring an attorney for the amount of time he will spend on your case, but what he can do for you in court room" The right lawyer is the one who knows the court and the DAs, someone who specifically work within that county and have experience working as a DA himself for a long time.
3. Stay strong. The threat of being stained forever and your future destroyed is overwhelming, and often time, you can't tell the people who cares about you. But no matter what, stay strong and fight for the best possible outcome for yourself. No one else will. Don't give up on life, please don't give up.

I will keep post of the progress.

Thank you for sharing, and good luck to you.

Received the call from my attorney..It is a different DA today but he/she is not willing to offer the No-Plea diversion.
The next court day is Jan. 11th..Praying............

Hey good luck with your journey. I totally understand what you are going through for I have recently been there myself and still going through this process. I made a dumb mistake too and I have so much at stake to lose. I took something from target for a value of $15. I was going through a lot of loss and problem in my life, and I did that because it was something to substitute my loss at the moment. I wasn't thinking about the consequences or even the possibility of getting caught. I was caught and charged. I even had to stay in jail for 1 whole day and it was the darkest living moment of my life. There is no amount of wealth, properties, or money that would EVER be worth jeopardizing loosing my freedom, the ability to do what I love, and my future that I have been working so hard for... NOTHING...

The next day, I was then released on OR. I spent the next few days looking for a lawyer and with the support of my family, I was able to hire one. However, I was naive enough to admit to theft and wrote down on the paper that I stole something from Target and they also have camera on me. My lawyer said that I could plead not guilty and go to trial but that would prolong and drag this thing out and would cost me more money. Since I am a 2nd year medical student, I couldn't spare the time and energy for that. So she tried work out a deal for me with the DA. (he was not a very understanding person).

Anyways, I was put on a 3 years probation, 18 days of weekend work program, $1000 restitution fee, and charged with a petty theft/misdemeanor. (I honestly think this is a bit much for a petty theft) My lawyer said that if I can keep myself out of troubles then she can get the charge expunged from my record in 1 to 1.5 years. So my worries now is to try and finish these work days while going to school full time. And I just pray that this will not affect my career in the future.

I totally understand how difficult it is for you to not tell your family or friends. None of my friends know about this because I feel like they would despise/hate/look down on me for my mistake. But i am very glad to be able to tell my mom and my sisters. This is a very very difficult and draining process to go through alone, so you should find someone you can confide in and talk to them.. good luck with everything and keep us updated.

My grandmother knew - I lived with her, so I had to tell her. Actually that is why I did it....she always said if I got into any trouble, she would kick me out. So I shoplifted in the hopes it would get me into enough trouble to be thrown out. Didn't work, she needed me. So I screwed up for nothing.

Telling my mom was hard. She rubbed it in a few times "Well, I'm off to Kohl's, too bad you can't go with me". (because of the ban from the store).

A couple of my closest friends know. They were shocked, because it is uncharacteristic of me. But they still love me and trust me.

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Quoting bigmistake86

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Hey good luck with your journey. I totally understand what you are going through for I have recently been there myself and still going through this process. I made a dumb mistake too and I have so much at stake to lose. I took something from target for a value of $15. I was going through a lot of loss and problem in my life, and I did that because it was something to substitute my loss at the moment. I wasn't thinking about the consequences or even the possibility of getting caught. I was caught and charged. I even had to stay in jail for 1 whole day and it was the darkest living moment of my life. There is no amount of wealth, properties, or money that would EVER be worth jeopardizing loosing my freedom, the ability to do what I love, and my future that I have been working so hard for... NOTHING...


The next day, I was then released on OR. I spent the next few days looking for a lawyer and with the support of my family, I was able to hire one. However, I was naive enough to admit to theft and wrote down on the paper that I stole something from Target and they also have camera on me. My lawyer said that I could plead not guilty and go to trial but that would prolong and drag this thing out and would cost me more money. Since I am a 2nd year medical student, I couldn't spare the time and energy for that. So she tried work out a deal for me with the DA. (he was not a very understanding person).

Anyways, I was put on a 3 years probation, 18 days of weekend work program, $1000 restitution fee, and charged with a petty theft/misdemeanor. (I honestly think this is a bit much for a petty theft) My lawyer said that if I can keep myself out of troubles then she can get the charge expunged from my record in 1 to 1.5 years. So my worries now is to try and finish these work days while going to school full time. And I just pray that this will not affect my career in the future.

I totally understand how difficult it is for you to not tell your family or friends. None of my friends know about this because I feel like they would despise/hate/look down on me for my mistake. But i am very glad to be able to tell my mom and my sisters. This is a very very difficult and draining process to go through alone, so you should find someone you can confide in and talk to them.. good luck with everything and keep us updated.

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Thanks for sharing your story. I am actually going to nursing school right now, so I know how much this mistake costs. It seems like you got a really harsh DA because the he/she did not have to charge you with misdemeanor theft for $15, but i guess they choose to. It must be so difficult but you are lucky you got great family support. My mother is the only one knows about it and I do not dare to tell my boyfriend who I live with or my friends. Sometimes I can't believe I am able to keep this painful secret. But the best of luck to you, and since you are in medical school, you should start consulting a license attorney to explore possible problem you might face with the medical board because the run livescan background check, and they can see EVERYTHING, and I mean everything on your record, arrest, dismissals, expungement, etc.

I just talked to my lawyer today, it turned out that he is trying to get a deal with the Head of Court, not the DA thats handling the case. The head of court is the person in charge of the DA office, so it is like going over the DA's head. I guess my attorney is very well connected, but like i said 2 days ago, the head of court did not seem to want to offer me the deal, but my lawyer said that he is not giving up and he feels like he still has a chance. So this is yet, all I can do is be on my best behavior and pray for the best.

Yeah I understand that this mistake is costly since we are in the medical field. I know the licensing board will see everything, even with an expungement. I am not planning to hide anything. If asked, I will tell the honest truth and said I made a mistake and that is a very poor judgment on my part (or lack thereof). I took something that didn't belong to me because at the moment, it was a justified payback because many things were taken away from me so quickly... However, nothing can justify such wrongdoing. And I am hoping that if I complete all of my punishments as early as I can and do not repeat this mistake again, they will not judge me for what I have done, but the things I am doing to change myself.
I believe you will be fine. Just focus on school. I can't tell you not to worry because I know I was worried sick and had noone to talk to but to discuss my problems on these forums.. And I am still worrying about how to finish these community service hours as quickly as I can without affecting my school work. But hopefully everything will work itself out. I am not a bad person, and I dont think you are either, so best of luck.

ps. I honestly was hoping that my case would get dropped/dismissed and I would have to go to a diversion program of some sort. But my attorney (who was a former DA) said that the chances of my case getting dismissed is very slim because the DA office wouldnt not spend time and effort to file my case just to then dismiss it.. and also, DAs want to make as many criminal convictions as you can because it would look good on their record... and since they had my handwriting on a piece of paper admitting to guilt, I was sort of out of luck.. =(

Quote:

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Quoting bigmistake86

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Yeah I understand that this mistake is costly since we are in the medical field. I know the licensing board will see everything, even with an expungement. I am not planning to hide anything. If asked, I will tell the honest truth and said I made a mistake and that is a very poor judgment on my part (or lack thereof). I took something that didn't belong to me because at the moment, it was a justified payback because many things were taken away from me so quickly... However, nothing can justify such wrongdoing. And I am hoping that if I complete all of my punishments as early as I can and do not repeat this mistake again, they will not judge me for what I have done, but the things I am doing to change myself.
I believe you will be fine. Just focus on school. I can't tell you not to worry because I know I was worried sick and had noone to talk to but to discuss my problems on these forums.. And I am still worrying about how to finish these community service hours as quickly as I can without affecting my school work. But hopefully everything will work itself out. I am not a bad person, and I dont think you are either, so best of luck.

ps. I honestly was hoping that my case would get dropped/dismissed and I would have to go to a diversion program of some sort. But my attorney (who was a former DA) said that the chances of my case getting dismissed is very slim because the DA office wouldnt not spend time and effort to file my case just to then dismiss it.. and also, DAs want to make as many criminal convictions as you can because it would look good on their record... and since they had my handwriting on a piece of paper admitting to guilt, I was sort of out of luck.. =(

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Sigh, I know its a long shot too... I confessed to the police officer at the time, and I know I am guilty..but I am kind of not in the position to pass up any chances. Since my lawyer is willing to try to help me I can only pray for the best. There is actually a first offender diversion program available for the court I was send to. With the diversion, there is technically "no conviction", but I would have to report it to the board. That's why we are trying for a no-plea diversion, which would be my best shot. If not, I would just have to go with the regular diversion. But I think it will probably lead to a 3 year probationary license later.

The worst part of this is the fear, second is not having anyone to talk to. I think this post is the only place I can talk about how I feel. I don't see myself as a bad person but it is difficult to face what I did, it just gonna take time to adjust to the guilt and regret. I think I was using shoplifting to compensate for the feeling of loss too even though I kept denying that I have a problem with it.
I really appreciate the support. I know its probably around final time for you too, and it not fun having to do community service, I hope you do well on it.

Newest update:

My court date was this morning and I called my lawyer this afternoon for update. He told me that he successfully convinced the head of court to offfer me a No-Plea Diversion.
I have to do three things
1. give DNA sample
2. Attend shoplifting prevention class
3. $300 donation to Diaster Victim Fundation

The case will be dismissed after I fulfill these condtions without having to enter a plea of guilty, therefore no conviction and also protect me against disciplinary actions from the licensing board. It truly is the best outcome that I could hope for.

It has been the darkest four month of my life, and I am so glad that now I can begin to move pass it and go on with my life.

Congrats.=======