Shoplifting at Macy's.

[NYgirl88]

Hi, I'm 18 now but when i was a freshman in high school, probably 13 or 14 years old I shoplifted at a Macy's and got caught. I stole a couple of shirts, and everything totaled like 200-300 dollars. They took me to a back room, took my information, and called my parents. They didn't involve the authorities but they fined me 500 or 700 dollars.

At that time I thought there was nothing odd about it but when I told this story to a couple of my friends they found it weird that they made me make the check payable to Macy's.

They said to me, "you can charge your Macy's card or pay by check". My friends told me that I should not have paid that fine to Macy's but to the courts and they should have called the police even though i was a minor.

Is it true that I should have paid the money to the city rather than the macys?
Thanks

[calebb]

That sounds perfectly legit to me.

Macy's was well within their legal rights to make a "civil demand" against you. It helps cover the cost of the salary of their loss prevention personnel and losses due to thieves that aren't caught.

In fact, you very fortunate in this situation. They would also be within their legal right to make a civil demand AND push for a criminal prosecution against you.

I hope you have learned your lesson... read some of the posts in this forum if you want to hear some of the tragic outcomes of habitual stealing

p.s., IANAL

[panther10758]

Hi, I'm 18 now but when i was a freshman in high school, probably 13 or 14 years old I shoplifted at a Macy's and got caught. I stole a couple of shirts, and everything totaled like 200-300 dollars. They took me to a back room, took my information, and called my parents. They didn't involve the authorities but they fined me 500 or 700 dollars.

At that time I thought there was nothing odd about it but when I told this story to a couple of my friends they found it weird that they made me make the check payable to Macy's.

They said to me, "you can charge your Macy's card or pay by check". My friends told me that I should not have paid that fine to Macy's but to the courts and they should have called the police even though i was a minor.

Is it true that I should have paid the money to the city rather than the macys?
Thanks

Your friends are wrong what did was legal. In fact if you had listened to your friends you would have been prosecuted and had a Police record! So what was wiser decision!?