Using Coupons Left by Customers

[lawfacts]

A big box store in Pennsylvania has a coupon printer that generates coupons when customers make purchases. A lot of customers at the self-service stations leave all of the coupons when they check out. The store was running a "$5 off your next purchase" coupon for certain customers. A store employee collected those coupons, and used twelve of them to get merchandise. The store has had the employee charged with theft. Nothing in the employee manual or other instructions given to the employee says that you can't use coupons left by customers. Will the charges stick?

[Mr. Knowitall]

That's a "maybe".

All other issues aside, the coupons may have been marked as "one per customer", in which case that of itself is probably enough to make a charge stick. If the system rejected purchases with multiple coupons, or required an override, then it should have been pretty clear to the employee that something was wrong with what they were doing. The rest depends upon state law, and the specific statute underlying the criminal charge.