Caught Stealing Decorative Packaging from Unpurchased Items

My question involves criminal law for the state of: CT

Hi...my sister is a frequent shopper at Lord and Taylor and has never stole anything in her life before. She had bought 7 boxes of Godiva chocolates a few months ago from Lord & Taylor, of which 4 of them had the special Godiva red ribbon on the package damaged. She says she had asked a few time for new Ribbons so she could replace the damaged ones before giving them away as gifts but every time they were telling her she has to buy the whole box again. Yesterday she was shopping there and she saw boxes of Godiva chocolates piled up at a corner of the store with Godiva ribbons wrapped around them in different colors. She was tempted and took 4 boxes to a different section in the store and removed the Godiva ribbons from two of them and then placed chocolate boxes back where they were originally placed. On her way just outside the store a security dressed in personal cloths and a lady calls her telling her he's from the security of Lord & Taylor and asking her to get the ribbons back! She was so shocked and embarrassed that she couldn't say more except "but they are just ribbons!" To which the lady replied "well they are our property u can't take them". She gave it back immediately and just left in rush. She's going crazy now since she has never done this in her life saying she didn't think for just a couple of tied ribbons with no price they confront her and she's afraid they ID her, send her emails, or coming to arrest her or close her account at lord & Taylor! She's so embarrassed more because she says people know her there and she just doesn't want the story gets spread and her name, face or identity revealed. Should she be concerned about this? Or she should just learn a lesson and stop thinking about it? Can she ever go back to the store?

Thank you.

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She's so embarrassed more because she says people know her there and she just doesn't want the story gets spread and her name, face or identity revealed.

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One should consider such things prior to stealing from an establishment where one is known. If the story gets out, she has no one to blame but herself.

(Yes, she stole, whether either of you consider it such.)

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Can she ever go back to the store?

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Legally? Sure, if they only asked for their ribbons back and didn't tell her she was banned from the store. She should consider herself quite lucky.

She should have gone to the Hallmark store and bought a spool of red ribbon instead.

^^^^Like

Totally agree! I told her the same. But she wanted the Godiva ribbons for the boxes she bought before and saying if the ribbons were for sale she would have paid but she didn't want to buy a whole box again just for the ribbon. I couldn't get her to eat anything since this happened and she's refusing to come to counseling :( ; don't know how else I can help her except reading the comments for her and comfort her. She's really a good person and this is not in her character at all and that's why she's over embarrassed for this stupid mistake.

I know your sister. Not personally but I know who she is. I know the personality and I can guess on the background. Frequent shopper at Lord & Taylor, Godiva chocolates. Is she married to some rich guy? Does she have a nice house in the burbs? Or does she live with her parents?

She is embarrassed because she got caught doing something she thought she was entitled to do. Someone should give her a good spanking because it didn't happen while she was growing up. She is not the princes she thinks she is in the eyes of the law.

Reality check. Time to grow up.

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Quoting Nazanin

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Totally agree! I told her the same. But she wanted the Godiva ribbons for the boxes she bought before and saying if the ribbons were for sale she would have paid but she didn't want to buy a whole box again just for the ribbon. I couldn't get her to eat anything since this happened and she's refusing to come to counseling :( ; don't know how else I can help her except reading the comments for her and comfort her. She's really a good person and this is not in her character at all and that's why she's over embarrassed for this stupid mistake.

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the ribbons were not for sale because they are part of the product itself.

she is lucky since damaging the packaging actually makes the item itself unsalable, at least as the product it was originally. They can likely discount the item but the law doesn't really care if they can or cannot.

and whether she eats or not is not a legal matter but I suspect she will eat if she gets hungry enough. Rarely do people actually starve themselves to death. It takes a long time and is quite uncomfortable.

Thank you "jk" for your opinion. She didn't damage the product, just removing the ribbon from the box, which I agree was not right. But originally they gave her boxes with damaged ribbons and didn't replace them; although I do agree this still doesn't justify taking the ribbon without permission.

And she didn't ask about the damaged ribbons at the time she bought them because...?

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She didn't damage the product, just removing the ribbon from the box, which I agree was not right.

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Yes, she did damage the product. Tampering with and stealing part of the packaging is considered damage to the product.