I stand corrected. But she knows how many brushes she put in her cart and how many she placed on the conveyor to pay for and apparently so did LP.
Strictly form observation of these type posts because I don't typically respond to them, the more extraneous detail about what caused the problem the less I believe it. And this was a doozy.
I appreciate your response! And yes I was extremely detailed. In my field of work we document things as soon as they happen so you do not forget details If and when we need to go court. So I did so in this situation for obvious reasons. It's extremely disheartening to hear that there is nothing I can do. What do you think would happen if I contest the citation on the scheduled court date?
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Thank you for your reply. I was thinking of getting a lawyer to contest the citation, do you think that would be helpful? I honestly do not want this haunting me in the future.
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Thank you! Exactly they were NOT in my purse at anytime.
I think what budwad is getting at is that something drew the LP's attention to the OP, early in her trip to the store. The LP saw her take the make-up brushes, the LP saw her conceal them (whether accidentally or on purpose) and the LP saw her go through the register without paying for them. While accidents do happen, the LP wasn't paying that much attention to Lizz4me by accident. It also doesn't help that she signed a confession.
What happened to the other 70% off item?
OP, I don't believe you. I've been working LP for 15 years. I think you knew what you were doing and did it on purpose.
The place to argue about criminal charges is in a court of law. If you did not intend to steal these items and it was indeed an accident, then plead not guilty and go to trial.
You have almost no hope of winning.
As for the admission statement, whether it was voluntary or not really doesn't matter at this point. The police, in more serious cases, use far more coercion than they used to get admissions and those stand up in court all the time. The observation of the LP agent coupled with the signed admission will almost certainly guarantee a conviction - and frankly, the observation and testimony of the LP agent WITHOUT the signed admission would almost certainly be enough to win a conviction as well.
Let's put it this way.
Even if the OP is pure as the driven snow, is telling the exact truth and is the one in how many hundreds who really did honestly forget, the court hears that excuse so many times a day that they're not going to believe her anyway.
Yep. And LP knows when it's likely an honest mistake. Just a couple weeks ago, I had one where I was running to the front of the store to go stop this guy exiting into the mall. I was going to just stop him and say "I know you didn't mean to, but you know the stuff you're taking into the mall is not paid for." I didn't end up having to do it; as I got to the door he turned around himself and made that "what am I doing" gesture and brought the stuff back in.
Intent or lack of intent is usually pretty obvious and easy to see.