Shoplifting, First Offense in Colorado

Me and my friend got caught shoplifting in Walmart and we have to go to court for it. We got banned forever from Walmart, but we've known quite a few people who have stolen from there and gotten caught but they have only gotten warnings or just got banned from that particular store or just for a little while, not for life from every Walmart anywhere like we did. This is our first conviction ever. I haven't even been pulled over once and I've never gotten any tickets ever. I'm 18 years old and am worried about if I'll be put on educational probation and job wise my friend and I are particularly concerned. Me and my friend have been researching this and much of the information we have gathered so far has told us to try to settle this out of court but since the date has already been set and we have been banned forever from Walmart we don't really see how that's possible. We didn't really get told any information about our court date, just when it is basically, and since neither of us has ever been to this court or court by ourselves at all we're kind of confused as to what to do especially since nothing was explained to us whatsoever. Something I read said to possibly talk to the prosecutor and tell him/her that we want to plead guilty in hopes that the charges will be as minimal as possible. We really really want the charges to be minimal as possible because we really don't want it to effect our jobs or when we apply for different jobs. We honestly don't know anything about something like this so we don't know what is going on and what will happen because neither of us have anything bad on our records. After going to court and paying off the fines and depending on how minimal or maximal the charges are will it still be on our records forever or will it be dismissed or let go (or whatever the technical term is for it)? We are very willing to settle if given the chance and we've been talking it over. We really would like to talk to someone about helping Walmart with it's security on shoplifting and helping them to catch shoplifters more easily in exchange for lessening the charges and being able to shop at walmart because we do shop there quite often. But we have no idea who to talk to. I was thinking maybe I would mention something to the prosecutor at the trial? But I have no idea who it will be and how exactly to do it. Like I said, I'm a newcomer when it comes to this whole breaking the law kind of thing. I just really don't want it to effect my life in more ways than it should, like by effecting future jobs and being hired and that sort of thing. I do realize what I've done and I know that there will be consequences but my friend and I are more than willing to do whatever it will take to make this go forever. Please if anyone has any advice, any help will be much appreciated. Thank you.

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Quoting anna_hart21

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Me and my friend got caught shoplifting in Walmart and we have to go to court for it. We got banned forever from Walmart, but we've known quite a few people who have stolen from there and gotten caught but they have only gotten warnings or just got banned from that particular store or just for a little while, not for life from every Walmart anywhere like we did. This is our first conviction ever. I haven't even been pulled over once and I've never gotten any tickets ever. I'm 18 years old and am worried about if I'll be put on educational probation and job wise my friend and I are particularly concerned. Me and my friend have been researching this and much of the information we have gathered so far has told us to try to settle this out of court but since the date has already been set and we have been banned forever from Walmart we don't really see how that's possible. We didn't really get told any information about our court date, just when it is basically, and since neither of us has ever been to this court or court by ourselves at all we're kind of confused as to what to do especially since nothing was explained to us whatsoever. Something I read said to possibly talk to the prosecutor and tell him/her that we want to plead guilty in hopes that the charges will be as minimal as possible. We really really want the charges to be minimal as possible because we really don't want it to effect our jobs or when we apply for different jobs. We honestly don't know anything about something like this so we don't know what is going on and what will happen because neither of us have anything bad on our records. After going to court and paying off the fines and depending on how minimal or maximal the charges are will it still be on our records forever or will it be dismissed or let go (or whatever the technical term is for it)? We are very willing to settle if given the chance and we've been talking it over. We really would like to talk to someone about helping Walmart with it's security on shoplifting and helping them to catch shoplifters more easily in exchange for lessening the charges and being able to shop at walmart because we do shop there quite often. But we have no idea who to talk to. I was thinking maybe I would mention something to the prosecutor at the trial? But I have no idea who it will be and how exactly to do it. Like I said, I'm a newcomer when it comes to this whole breaking the law kind of thing. I just really don't want it to effect my life in more ways than it should, like by effecting future jobs and being hired and that sort of thing. I do realize what I've done and I know that there will be consequences but my friend and I are more than willing to do whatever it will take to make this go forever. Please if anyone has any advice, any help will be much appreciated. Thank you.

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WalMart, or for that matter - no retailer, will let you do that. They do not let thieves they have caught come back and advise them.

I worked in LP and we always asked the person how they concealed (we already knew). Many times it was that they walked in the dressing room with baggy clothes and 4 items and walked out with 2 items and not so baggy clothes. Granted, we did have a few problems where most LP officers were men and teens were stealing bras. ...that's why department stores have the ugliest bras and not many fit teens (at least that's what happened with my store).

Never did we allow the thief to come in and give us loss prevention counseling. We would study them on the tape (we had VCR tapes back then not all of this fancy digital stuff with facial recognition) and track them back from the time they came in the store. We would also look for them on previous days. Most career shoplifters were known to our senior LP officers in the office I worked out of.

...sometimes these types of tactics work where underage (18-20) kids go in and bust bars for serving liquor to under 21, they don't work with stores. They *might* work on a small mom and pop department store, but not a big store with thousands of LP officers and the best LP consultants in the business.

I'm in a similar circumstance here in Colorado, and I was wondering what happened to you in court? Thanks!