Chances of Being Caught A Couple of Days Later

[dibugdi]

so nothing has happened yet and it's been a while, am I in the clear?

[usedbranflakes]

At the department store I worked at it took us weeks to get the information on the plates back from corporate LP and get the letter out.

Until the statute of limitations is up in your state YOU ARE NOT IN THE CLEAR. Most states it is 1 or 2 years. As you asked this question on 30 November, by my watch, you have 51 to 103 more weeks to worry at a minimum. You did not provide enough information to really allow an attorney on the board to make a determination on the length of time that you should panic and give yourself an anxiety disorder. No matter what happens, it is going to happen whether or not you worry yourself sick.

I worked LP in a smaller state that had a 1 year limit on shoplifting and petit larceny (theft $299.99 and below). We had to file the charges within a year. In some cases if they paid for the item and the parents agreed that the child would never be in our store we would release a juvenile. We employed juveniles and recent grads, trained them in LP as part of their retail sales training, and notified them which college classmates were not allowed in the store. They were pretty good about asking their classmates to leave.

The Commonwealth of Virginia, where I reside, has a FIVE YEAR (5 year) SOL on petit larceny. There is case law in Virginia where a large store charged someone over 1 year after they stole merchandise and the court declined to dismiss the case stating the 5 year SOL. My guess is that the person refused to or could not pay the civil remediation fees and they decided to pursue it civilly and legally. Some states have removed their Statute of Limitations on Felony larceny (including shoplifting) and some have even removed the SOL on even petit larceny.

While I trained in Criminal Justice in college and worked in loss prevention I am not an attorney, I am not a law enforcement officer, and I am thankful that I no longer work out of the LP office in a department store.

Until the SOL expires you are SOL (sh!t out of luck).

[dibugdi]

I've been back in the store since and have purchased items..... And nothing seemed scary... I went in because i thought it would help me get over my fear. It did kind of help - if they were planning on arresting me, wouldn't they have done so when I went back shopping????

[panther10758]

If they had evidence of your prior thefts and have saved yes but only if someone recalled your face. Your entering store and exiting without problems means nothing