I both work in law enforcement and I have about ten years' experience in retail loss prevention.
Let's get a few things straight here.
As noted above by another poster, loss prevention has legal authority to detain and/or arrest people for shoplifting. In my state, and in every other state that I'm aware of, that legal authority is STATUTORY; that is, in addition to any citizen's arrest that might or might not exist in that state, state law SPECIFICALLY allows for, as my state puts it, "merchants or agents of a merchant" to take people into custody when they have probable cause that a person has shoplifted. Our state allows citizen's arrests only for felonies. The statute covering loss prevention specifically gives LP the authority to act for misdemenor thefts/frauds. So not only can loss prevention take you into custody, they CAN use force to do so, in exactly the same manner that the police can. In this state, loss prevention has the same authority as the police when ON THEIR OWN PROPERTY and WHEN INVESTIGATING THEFT. So the OP can knock off the cute statements about plastic badges. The badge, first of all is metal (I worked for Kohl's at one point) and second of all the badge is as "real" as the legal authority behind it, as I noted above.
Secondly, along the same lines as the above paragraph: Because of what I outlined above, the "You're not a cop" statement isn't germane or relevant. A meter maid isn't a cop either, but will ticket and tow your car. So while the statement is true enough, it doesn't mean that they have no authority to arrest you. If a loss prevention person stops you on the street outside the store for running a red light, then you can say "But you're not a cop" and have the statement be applicable to the situation.
Now - I'm glad you brought up that loss prevention are not the police. I have always loved it when I'm working in the LP role and someone says that. Why? Because they have no idea how true that is! Working in LP, I don't have to read you your miranda rights, and anything you tell me is admissible in court. I can continue to question you even after you request an attorney, and again, anything you tell me is admissible in court. And in any search I make of you or your things, whatever I find has no hope of being suppressed, since I'm not a cop and therefore not an agent of the state.
As for the OP's originial question: You might be charged or not. If they stopped you, they had more than tags found. I frankly think you are lying to us about the whole story, and I base that upon my knowledge of retail loss prevention and my ten years working it, as well as my knowledge of Kohl's specifically.

