Pennsylvania is indeed a state that like to pile on all kinds of additional “fees” in traffic and criminal matters on top of whatever the base fine is. I dislike that practice and find it in a sense to be deceptive. I used to live in that state and found many of its practices to be at best characterized as severely outdated. It is also a state that tends to be one of those that runs on the high side of the corruption scale. Not every state is like Pennsylvania, thankfully.
But I also agree that you made too broad a statement when you asserted that “You can count on criminal penalties costing you thousands.” That may be true in some states, after factoring in the various fees that might be included. It is not true in all states, however. We do not yet know in what state the OP committed the theft, so it is really too early to say with certainty what the cost might be. Rather, I think it is more accurate to say that it might end up costing into the thousands. With 50 states, DC, the territories and possessions, a multitude of state laws as well as municipal ordinances on petit theft, and thousands of different judges that might hear the case, with all differing sorts of programs that might be available, I think it folly for anyone to state with certainty what a particular defendant will face when we have no idea where the crime was committed, what law the person is charged with violating, and what the judges and prosecutors in that court typically do.

