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.

