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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    1

    Default Charged with a Misdemeanor Theft for Shoplifting

    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?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Posts
    38,867

    Default Re: Charged with a Misdemeanor Theft for Shoplifting, But

    I would have to look to be positive about Louisiana but in many states, the only action required to make it a crime is to conceal the merchandise which, if she had secreted it away into her purse, she was guilty of.

    the fact her checkbook was also found in there tends to show she thought she was going to get caught so she went in there and dumped the stuff and accidentally dumped her checkbook as well.


    If she is going to steal, she needs to be much smarter than that.


    What if she's just a indecisive, lazy shopper?
    Two things: they wouldn't have emptied their purse in the wastebasket and she was quite likely already under surveillance and they simply followed her to the bathroom and upon her leaving, discovered the merchandise.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Charged with a Misdemeanor Theft for Shoplifting

    Yes, in Louisiana concealing merchandise is theft. There is no requirement for the thief to exit the last point of sale or the store.

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