Shoplifting or Defrauding an Innkeeper

re California Law

If an item was alleged to have been stolen in a delicatessan - in store restaurant, of a grocery store. Would that be considered shoplifting PC
484 a petty theft or PC 537?


(a) Any person who obtains any food, fuel, services, or
accommodations at a hotel, inn, restaurant, boardinghouse,
lodginghouse, apartment house, bungalow court, motel, marina, marine
facility, autocamp, ski area, or public or private campground,
without paying therefor, with intent to defraud the proprietor or
manager thereof, or who obtains credit at an hotel, inn, restaurant,
boardinghouse, lodginghouse, apartment house, bungalow court, motel,
marina, marine facility, autocamp, or public or private campground by
the use of any false pretense, or who, after obtaining credit, food,
fuel, services, or accommodations, at an hotel, inn, restaurant,
boardinghouse, lodginghouse, apartment house, bungalow court, motel,
marina, marine facility, autocamp, or public or private campground,
absconds, or surreptitiously, or by force, menace, or threats,
removes any part of his or her baggage therefrom with the intent not
to pay for his or her food or accommodations is guilty of a public
offense punishable as follows:
(1) If the value of the credit, food, fuel, services, or
accommodations is nine hundred fifty dollars ($950) or less, by a
fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000) or by imprisonment
in the county jail for a term not exceeding six months, or both.
(2) If the value of the credit, food, fuel, services, or
accommodations is greater than nine hundred fifty dollars ($950), by
imprisonment in a county jail for a term of not more than one year,
or in the state prison.
(b) Any person who uses or attempts to use ski area facilities for
which payment is required without paying as required, or who resells
a ski lift ticket to another when the resale is not authorized by
the proprietor, is guilty of an infraction.
(c) Evidence that a person left the premises of such an hotel,
inn, restaurant, boardinghouse, lodginghouse, apartment house,
bungalow court, motel, marina, marine facility, autocamp, ski area,
or public or private campground, without paying or offering to pay
for such food, fuel, services, use of facilities, or accommodation,
or that the person, without authorization from the proprietor, resold
his or her ski lift ticket to another person after making use of
such facilities, shall be prima facie evidence of the following:
(1) That the person obtained such food, fuel, services, use of
facilities or accommodations with intent to defraud the proprietor or
manager.

If you take something that isn't your's, think you're pretty much up the creek if the store decides to file charges.

Since we don't know the circumstances, it's very difficult to give an answer.

Bottom line is, does it really matter? If you take what doesn't belong to you, then you are subject to prosecution.

I will simplify the question. If you eat at a restaurant inside a grocery store
and don't pay for the meal , is that shoplifting?

In my world, YES. State laws differ, and the definition is left to the prosecutors. Bottom line is that if you take something that doesn't belong to you (including food), a crime has been committed.

Just looked it up, in CA, a dine and dash is considered petty theft.

lenwardus...

Let me put it this way.

You are still stealing.

Quote:

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Quoting PandorasBox

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lenwardus...

Let me put it this way.

You are still stealing.

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This forum is expertlaw.com not officer.com. :D