Caught Helping a Friend Shoplift, Police Not Involved

let me start off saying it was a stupid choice . Im a 20 year old male i walked into a local Walmart in Texas , and ran into a buddy of mine . He was shoplifting against my better judgement I held on to a 10 dollar bottle of cologne for him we got caught. We were compliant polite handed the merchandise back they took our photo never called the police and asked us to leave the store for the day and said because its a first offence police won't be involved we are only in their system and we might receive a asset protection recovery letter . My buddy received his today for 200 bucks, I haven't received one yet but if I do what consequences would I come buy if I don't pay I've read that its a scam and they don't follow up I have no problem paying if this will put it behind me like I said dumb choice won't happen again I'm not a thief and this proves me .any help is appreciated thanks

They may only be permitted to send one letter out per incident ... or, your letter is pending.

Yeah, you can ignore it if you want, but if you get the letter and want peace of mind, you should pay it. If not, then you might have to wonder for a couple of years whether today will be the day the police will come for you because they can call the police to report the theft. It's your call.

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Quoting Popeye365

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let me start off saying it was a stupid choice . Im a 20 year old male i walked into a local Walmart in Texas , and ran into a buddy of mine . He was shoplifting against my better judgement I held on to a 10 dollar bottle of cologne for him we got caught. We were compliant polite handed the merchandise back they took our photo never called the police and asked us to leave the store for the day and said because its a first offence police won't be involved we are only in their system and we might receive a asset protection recovery letter . My buddy received his today for 200 bucks, I haven't received one yet but if I do what consequences would I come buy if I don't pay I've read that its a scam and they don't follow up I have no problem paying if this will put it behind me like I said dumb choice won't happen again I'm not a thief and this proves me .any help is appreciated thanks

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Walmart is notorious for prosecuting theft - simply reading the threads here will confirm that. Think about it - it's a slam dunk for them. They get the merchandise, the fine and likely their legal fees. What do they have to lose?

It seems to be the policy (per the Walmart LP folks locally) that first offenders with ID are not generally prosecuted for misdemeanor thefts. This might vary by region or jurisdiction, but I don't know that they'd want to prosecute every theft as that would mean paying a lot of employees to be in court a few times per incident. One shoplifting incident might involve a half dozen employees and they could all be subpoenaed to court. We had one incident a few years back that found 14 employees in court for three days! Yes, it was a serious snatch and grab, but they were all needed for the preliminary hearing (one day) and then trial (two days a few weeks later).

If you get the letter, pay it. There is the potential for a second letter for a higher amount, a third letter for even higher, then Civil Court. And if you still don't pay, screw your credit rating.