Can You Be Charged With Theft if You Put the Item Back

My question involves criminal law for the state of: North Carolina

I was working at my retail chain store, I was closing. While I was cleaning up the floor, right before closing, I stumbled upon a little purple rubber duck with no markings or tag, it looked like it was just left there, it was very dusty;I have worked in this store for a while and never saw anything like it. I held onto it and kept it in my pocket. It was cute and abandoned looking. I finished cleaning and had the final meeting of the night with all my coworkers, got all my stuff and got ready to leave with everyone else. We all move down stairs and stand by the exit doors. I get close to the alarm and it goes off. No one seems to care too much and no one noticed that I was the one who set it off, or so I think. I went over to a shelf and put the little duck on it. I then go stand by my friend/coworker, who didn't say anything and acted normal with me. Everyone left the store normally that night. Since the alarm went off I know it means that I attempted to shoplift even though I did not assume it was a store item, like I should have.

I'm wondering if I can loose my job for this. No one saw me pick up the duck, no saw me conceal the duck. Would they check over camera footage to see if they could find out who set off the alarm?

I'm writing this the day after this incident happened. Would they check the cameras a day after the alarm got set off? Would they prosecute me if I put the item back without being told to? With that being said, can they prosecute me a day/days after I set the alarm off, but did not go through with stealing?

Please help!

Can you lose your job? Sure. You can lose your job if your boss thinks your shoes are ugly.

Will you? Only time will tell.

Given that nothing happened after the alarm went off, unless you have some reason to believe that they've secretly called the police, odds are nothing more is going to happen.

Will they check cameras for this?

We would have no way of knowing.

Can they prosecute me since I put the item back without being questioned?

Is it theoretically possible? Yes.