My question involves criminal law for the state of: My question involves criminal law for the state of: New Jersey.
I was recently detained for shoplifting at a local well-known department store chain. The value of what I took totalled $505.00. All of the items were made available to the Loss Prevention staff and were in proper condition to be put back on the floor for sale.
The Loss Prevention staff then went on to bring up my charge account, and hold me accountable for any and all returns I had made in the last year that were made without a receipt. Their position was that the items must have been stolen and they were going to hold me responsible for reimbursing them for these returns.
I of course wanted to do all I could to avoid the police being involved, so I went along with their program. It resulted in my writing a check to the store for over $1200.00 (for returns made to my charge account, that were honored at the time I returned them, but were now being held against me). I also had to write a separate check for $1050.00which represented (7) civil charges against me (@$150.00 each), for the seven returns I had made without a receipt.
I wanted to express that I felt it extremely unfair and unfounded to hold me accountable for stealing something that (1), you cannot substantiate and (2) was honored by the store at the time of the transaction.
I have learned my lesson and am not making any excuses for my behavior, but I do have a very bad taste in my mouth for how this was handled. I think they took full advantage of the fact that I was fearful of police involvement, and held me accountable for items that I told them were not taken.
Please let me know your thoughts. I am very interested to hear if this is a common procedure.

