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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    6,808

    Default Re: How Much $ Can a Store Demand in Payment when Detaining You for Shoplifting

    Honey, you got off easy with no police involvement.

    In addition to the Civil Demand penalties for each incident....you would have also had:
    - Court costs and fines
    - Probation, Community Service, or anti-shoplifting class (these cost $300+)
    - A record of a Felony Arrest, which would make your job options very limited.
    - Mugshot and fingerprints on file.
    - The expense of hiring a lawyer to represent you in court (since you could write those large checks, I don't think you would have qualified for a public defender...Add in another $1500+ for a lawyer)

    By the way.....$505 shows you have shoplifted before, and had you gone in front of a judge, the judge would take notice of that.

    Suggestion: Get some counseling or into Shoplifters Anonymous, or an anti-shoplifting class. You got off very lucky this time....don't think you will get off so easy the next time.

    Also...stay out of that store, and all their other locations. You can be arrested for Criminal Trespass should you step foot in that store again.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Posts
    3,835

    Default Re: How Much $ Can a Store Demand in Payment when Detaining You for Shoplifting

    Donna, how did they give a cash credit for an item with no receipt?

    Every store I have even been in will not give a cash refund without a receipt!!

    Assuming this was done, to total over 1200 would seem to substantiate probable cause you took the itmes.

    This is a lawyer in NJ:

    When a shopkeeper, security guard, or police officer has probable cause to believe someone has shoplifted and has purposely concealed items on him, the shopkeeper can detain the shoplifter. Probable cause requires the shopkeeper to have a reasonable basis to conclude that theft has occurred. Additionally, the theft must have occurred in front of the shopkeeper.


    http://criminal.findlaw.com/articles/000069.html

    This is the detention statute though.

    To demand payment for the items returned + accessing a Civil demand for each is legally questionable as the alleged theft was not witnessed.

    However, if there were MULTIPLE returns, that is a strike against you.

    It is probably not legal in a "technical" sense, however, if you wanted to keep the police out of it, you succeeded probably.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Oklahoma
    Posts
    695

    Default Re: How Much $ Can a Store Demand in Payment when Detaining You for Shoplifting

    I noticed that you didn't deny having stolen the returns that you complained about, only tha the store couldn't substantiate that you stole them. Interesting...I think you got off easy. $3000 to avoid a felony conviction, prison or probation time, and the embarrassment is pretty good deal.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    6,808

    Default Re: How Much $ Can a Store Demand in Payment when Detaining You for Shoplifting

    Having worked retail: It depends on the store as to if they give cash for a return without a receipt (usually at last sale price); or a Merchandise Return Card. Some give it directly to the credit card the person thinks they used in the transaction.

    That said - they also require a signature of the person. And let's face it - 7 "I forgot to save the receipt" purchases in a year is unusual. And especially when you have a person shoplifting $505 in a single trip.

    Many people will shoplift and item, then return it for the money/credit. This is all too common.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    CT & IL
    Posts
    5,273

    Default Re: How Much $ Can a Store Demand in Payment when Detaining You for Shoplifting

    I think that the store cannot use the threat of calling the police to settle a civil matter on their end. You may have a civil case against them. Its like blackmail .. check your state's case law. And if so, it would probably destroy any criminal case against you as well. I know in my state that if you say "pay up" or I'll call the cops, it will end up that the threatenor (word?) would be guilty of a felony.

  6. #6

    Default Re: How Much $ Can a Store Demand in Payment when Detaining You for Shoplifting

    Quote Quoting BOR
    View Post

    This is a lawyer in NJ:

    When a shopkeeper, security guard, or police officer has probable cause to believe someone has shoplifted and has purposely concealed items on him, the shopkeeper can detain the shoplifter. Probable cause requires the shopkeeper to have a reasonable basis to conclude that theft has occurred. Additionally, the theft must have occurred in front of the shopkeeper.


    http://criminal.findlaw.com/articles/000069.html
    Here's what the NJ Merchant's Statute actually says: "A law enforcement officer, or a special officer, or a merchant, who has probable cause for believing that a person has willfully concealed un-purchased merchandise and that he can recover the merchandise by taking the person into custody, may, for the purpose of attempting to effect recovery thereof, take the person into custody and detain him in a reasonable manner for not more than a reasonable time, and the taking into custody by a law enforcement officer or special officer or merchant shall not render such person criminally or civilly liable in any manner or to any extent whatsoever.

    Any law enforcement officer may arrest without warrant any person he has probable cause for believing has committed the offense of shoplifting as defined in this section.

    A merchant who causes the arrest of a person for shoplifting, as provided for in this section, shall not be criminally or civilly liable in any manner or to any extent whatsoever where the merchant has probable cause for believing that the person arrested committed the offense of shoplifting."

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Posts
    3,835

    Default Re: How Much $ Can a Store Demand in Payment when Detaining You for Shoplifting

    I understand the shoplifting detainment law, the crux here is, if they had legal authority to demand payment for alleged fraudulent returns when they did not witness her actually take the items returned.

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