Recently a family member of mine was charged with a misdemeanor theft for shoplifting, but she never actually removed any unpaid for items from the store. When she was in the restroom, an employee heard her rumaging in her purse. Two weeks later a police officer shows up at her house to charge her with the crime. They state that she dumped some merchandise in the restroom waste basket where her checkbook was also consequently found. The policewoman told her that she could take her to jail, but because of her benevolent nature, only wrote her a ticket for misdemeanor theft and told her to appear in court to pay her fines. In the state of Louisiana, is it really considered a crime if nothing was actually removed from the store? What if she's just a indecisive, lazy shopper? Can they pin her with conspiring to shoplift? If so, can they change the charges after they've already been made?

