Shoplifting

[stressedoutmommy]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Shoplifting....

Ok... I am sure that people that work in retail and the police listen to a million sob stories and excuses from theives attempting to get out of stuff... But here is what I happened to me and it WAS a total accident...

I was shopping at Belk... yesterday... I had maybe 30 min to spare... I really was only there to pick up my kids pictures.. I had a million errands to run... I had been running all day... I ran in... looked around thee jewelery dept and grabbed a handful of things... 2 bracelets... an anklet and ring set in one package, a box of loop earings and then headed to the handbag dept. Once there I looked for some wallets... Found one that could have worked for my mom... but it had a darker color of brown that I wanted so I just grabbed it and wanted to think about it for a minute... I looked at the box for the price I believe it was $36... I also checked the wallet as in to see if what type of slots it had and whatever... kept moving... I spent less that 3 minutes with the wallet... same with the jewerly... I was now headed to juniors... I scoured around for some clothes.. specific items black pants white shirt... couldn't find what I was looking for headed to the clearance rack...

Mind you my hands are full... I am in a hurry... I have my car keys.. which are a bit big.. not huge but a heafty handful in my hand along with merchandise and my cell phone... I am looking through the rack the clothes hangers are all tangled and squeezed in together I am trying to get to a white blouse that I see... I am tugging a little bit... not enough to damage anytthing... and I end up dropping everything... I scoop everything up and I throw my keys in my purse to free up my hand... I finally have a few items and I look at the time I head upstairs for the pictures...

I get to Olan Mills and I get my pics...

I leave and walk directly to the kids dept and look for a dress for my daughter for our trip... found nothing... decide since I am right there I am going to try the clothes on.. 2 black pants... same style 2 diff sizes... 1 pair of shorts decided not to try on... and 2 white blouses... Nothing fit... now... I think to myself... I need to come back tomorrow with time. My husband and kids would be getting out of the movie and I still needed to run a couple of errands and beat them home... so

I head downstairs and drop the handful of clothes on the rack... And I felt bad for leaving it anywhere instead of putting if back but I was rushing... I then dropped the handful of jewelery on one of the tables of the jewelery counter and literally ran out of the store...

What I did NOT realize was............

The wallet being a small thing rectangular box was infront of the two large envelopes that contained my pictures....

AND to make it even better... when I dropped everything and put the kety in my bag the bracelets were in that tangled mess....

So not knowing this I leave...

Seconds later I am stopped by a very arrogant man who begins to tell me that I know why.. after I asked him you are you.. what it is... He tells me to follow him into the store... as I start to turn around... I shift my arm and the pictures move... they are in flimsly envelopes... so I go to hold them up and keep them straight and I feel the little box of the wallet... I could have DIED! I immediately say "OH MY GOD!!" I am soo sorry... I cannot believe I have walked out with this.... I tried to explain... he didn't seem to care said that he needed me to return to the store. He said he would tackle and handcuff me if I ran... I told him not to worry... and almost laughed because this was seeming so ridiculous... Ok so we get back in the store...

They take me to an office. Once in there.. they start digging through my purse. I said I have 2 pouches on each side on the outside... they are not zippered... just to small pouches for small things... about the size of my fist.. and I always throw my keys and cell in one and my kids sippy cup or a bottle fits perfectly in the other... I also tell him I have a make up bag and another 2zipper sections.... I told him I had nothing...

So... they are searching.... he is about finished the last thing he does is pull out my keys... and there tangled in my keys are to bracelets with NO tags.

He said there they are there I my bracelets.

Great.. I am thinking man this looks really bad... I tried to explain... I have had a really horrible week... yesterday was the icing on the cake... I made stupid little mistakes throughout the whole day... it was just one of those days...

But anyway, back to the story... a lady walks in... and she seems to think everything that comes out of my mouth is hilarious... and so she takes my bag... starts digging again... finds a pair of earings my earings... and says "These look like mine" I said.. "Ma'am" those earings are mine. They might have come from here.. but they are mine. I took them off as I do most of the costume earings I wear bc I am allergic to earings that contain Nickel and I can only wear them for a little while. Most of the time I toss them in my bag and forget about them. I also had a cosmetic bag of Clinique makeup a wallet and a bottle of perfume all that came from that store......

Well, she didnt believe me and took my earings... when the man that she sent to go collect the items that they say I stole returned, he returned with a plastic earing holder that I never even looked at. He also said I can't find anything... I told him exactly where I left things and he went back. He still came back with nothing except one tag of one of the bracelets that they claim I ripped off.. Now... the only way I can think to explain the tag falling off... is when I was struggling with the clearance rack and dropping my crap everywhere... one of the hangers snapped maybe the reason was I got it hung up on something or my keys or whatever...

This was a stupid careless accident. It was no different that looking for your sunglasses and after 20 min realizing they are on your head.... the best part about this... is that I have a BELK PREMIER card.... had just picked up $200+ dollars in pictures and spend an average of $500 a month and never once have paid interest. I pay things off in full, I shopped there for 8 years... I feel as I was bullied and that they did have a reason to stop me and I did have their stuff but it wasn't intentional...

They have issued me a citation... given me a courtdate... they claim I stole $153 dollars worth of jewelery and a wallet. The only things I had in my possesion were the wallet... which I believe was $36 and two braclets that believe were $20 each... so that would be...$76.. when I got home I looked for my earings and they are not in there... so she must have added that to her tally....

They claimed to have proof... I asked them to show me and they refused. They did not show the police either... what gives... these two loss prevention freaks were terribly arrogant it was so ridiculous you would think they thought they were FBI agents or something... the best part about it all... The guy loss prevention looked like fat Ben from Lost... drove me nuts.

My plan is to hire an atty. A goof friend of mine is a city cop here and is well known in the community and he will go to court with me and vouch for my character. Hopefully the DA will find it in his little heart to understand that I just am at my wits end and stressed the max... 2 small kids, military husband, leaving on vacation... and a bunch of other stupid crap... I tell you what though... If I have learned anything... it is SLOW down... crap always happends when you are in a hurry... I am 37 years old... I am no kid. I am a nurse... but I am not working I stay home with my kids. And that is another thing... when I said I didn't work.... the two loss prevention freaks said in unison mind you "hahah... they never do"...

Another best part... banned from all Belk stores for 5 years... LIKE I WOULD EVER SHOP THERE AGAIN EVER!!!! I am closing my account ASAP!!!
and I have been banned from the entire mall property.... to include several resturants, office depot, pier one, the optical office where I get my contacts, firestone where I get my vehicles taken care of, most importantly... Bank of America... where I do all my banking both personal and business.... seriously there has to be a way out of this mess.

I am soooo beyond ticked off that if I could move sooner than I am planning to I would.

I understand rules and policies... but this world is not perfect and somethings are sometimes not what they appear. This could have been worked out. Instead they go buck crazy and really screw things up for me when I am NOT a shoplifter...

Does anyone have any advice other than to get an atty??? And will a video if they have the video that they claim to have be clear enough to show that I did not steal..... When you see videos on the news they are grainy... and hard to see... I hope this is NOT the case bc I want to cleared of this!!!

Thanks... Stressedoutmommy, BC

[cyjeff]

First, you did shoplift. You took products out of the store that you did not pay for. Regardless of your reason, regardless of your friendships with law enforcement and regardless of your stress level.

You stole. You may have done it by accident, but you stole.

Okay, so the issue is not whether or not you did it but intent.

I would plan on a civil demand... pay it... and plead your case in court. Even if you win in court, you will still pay the civil demand.

You can win your innocence in criminal court and still lose the civil demand. If you lose the civil demand, your already very high penalty will now have attorney's fees and court costs added.

[cyjeff]

One other point.

Private landholders have the right to bar entry and egress to anyone they want.

No matter what else, you are banned from the mall and that is legally allowed.

[cyjeff]

by the way. A conviction here could also effect your nursing license.

[stressedoutmommy]

Thank you for your response... I totally understand that regardless it is stealing... I am very aware of that. However, I feel as though I should be heard to explain... I have never been in any kind of trouble at all ever... After reading through many of the posts here... I see that this is NOT unusual.... there are many posts from mom's that have made honest mistakes... things can happen... why are the loss prevention so gung ho about not seeing through the haze and allowing some one to make a mistake.... I can understand this shoplifting things when it comes to people that deliberately take things... but crap happens... at this same store on Mother's Day... I went with my kids to the Olan Mills located in the children's dept.. They have a small toy section. THe section is in the lobby area of the entrance of the portrait studio. I had taken my kids in the stroller because I wanted to do some shopping and take the kids to the mall. They had pictures with Dora. To make a long story short. My kids were looking at the toys as I was paying with for the photo session. I finished and told the kids to get in the stroller that it was time to go. We leave and head over to the food court. It was super busy that day being Mother's Day. I got the food and we went and sat down. My son is 5 gets up and sits at the table.. I lay the food on the table. I reach down and scoop up my 2 year old and go to sit her at the table.. as soon as I do this I notice a Cinderella baby doll. The small ones.. Small box just a little bigger than let's say a rubik's cube... I told her that was a no-no and told her we have to ask mommy before we take things. We ate. As soon we we finished I headed right back to Belk and I returned the doll to the children's dept. I said I was sorry but I didn't notice that she grabbed it. This also happened with my son at Walmart. He took a pack of gum. He was 4 and he put it in his pocket. I noticed it as we were getting out. I put all of my groceeries in the car and headed back the the store. I went straight to the cashier and paid for 2 packs of gum. He had started to open the gum and that is when I noticed. I told the lady what he did. I made him apologize. I asked to throw the open one away. The other pack I looked around the checkout lines for a boy my son's age. I approached the parents and asked him I could give him the gum. I quickly explained that I was teaching a lesson. They smiled and agreed and I made my son understand that he cannot take things without paying. And now some other kid that didn't steal got the gum. He now asks me every single time before even reaching for something. And even insists on giving it to the checkout person to make sure it beeps!

I am NOT a shoplifter. This is CRAP. I am honest person. And there needs to be room for human error here... this is NOT fair!!!

[cyjeff]

I will agree that small children are not as likely to be prosecuted for shoplifting as adults.

I have been in retail for over 20 years. Every single shoplifter I caught (and I caught dozens) wasn't guilty.

They accidentally picked something up and put it in their purse. They just wanted a closer look so they took it out of the package. They forgot they were wearing it. They were stressed. The kids were yelling.

You eventually become hardened to it. Everyone has a really good excuse why THEY shouldn't have to pay for the crime they committed.

So you stop listening to any of them. That is the purpose of court. You explain your side and they explain theirs and a judge works out who is telling the truth.

[stressedoutmommy]

I can certainly understand becoming hardened to this type of job. I can imagine that you deal with thugs and attitudes and crap! But it would have been nice for these loss prevention people to have a little bit of whatever it takes to be able to see through bs! Considering they deal with people stealing all the time they should be able to pick out the honest mistakes from the actual shoplifters. I was nicely dressed. Polite. Very cooperative and apologetic. Hell the wedding bands I have on my finger are 10k atleast... not to include my 10 year anniversary band. The woman loss prevention woman, being a woman should know how pricey Clinque is and I had a nice sized clear cosmetic bag that you could see through and could see the cosmetics. I had a wallet with every credit card you could imagine... Gold Amex... several other plat cards my business accounts.. My husband and I own a business aside from him being in the military... so.. I honestly I just don't fit the typical... the officer that gave me the citation told me to call my officer friend and he spoke to him on my phone... my friend told him he knew me knew my family and that he knew it was not intentional.. we had just spoken 2 days ago and he knew how stressful things have been for me with all that I have going on... the officer with the citiation said he had to follow through with the Belk policy. The 2 security cards and the assistant to the loss prevention agreed that accidents happen they were respectful and polite and I could tell they way they looked at me and the way they treated me that they believed it was an honest mistake. But the top to loss prevention people were rude, arrogant and thought everything I said was a joke. It was a terrible experience. I hope to God I never run into either of those two. It is a small town and I will most def say something to them. I would be willing to bet that I and my husband have more in our savings alone that both those two wanna be cops make in one year combined. I am hiring an atty... I will fight this tooth and nail and I don't give a damn how much I spend. If nothing else than to prove a point that I DID NOT STEAL BC I WANTED TO.... IT WAS A FREAKING ACCIDENT!!!!

[panther10758]

Facts are (court deals in fact) You met the criteria for shoplifting.

Non Facts are your alledged intent and or distraction. they cannot be proved.

The judge heres thousands of excuses everyday yours will be just one more. I am not saying your lieing just that court deals in facts and proof. find an Atorney discuss your options one you can discuss is diversion which should help save your Nursing career

[stressedoutmommy]

diversion?

[cyjeff]

I understand your frustration.

However, you are insinuating that you are too rich to steal. Shoplifting is RARELY done to provide needed sustenance.

99 times out of a 100, shoplifters steal items they could easily pay for but simply didn't want to.

I had one shoplifter tell me that they were stealing to show me that my prices for the items were too high and she refused to pay it. She still wanted the product, just not at my price. So she decided to negotiate the price to zero.

Loss prevention folks are not tasked as human lie detectors. They are told to prevent merchandise from leaving the store without proper payment.

I have fired LP people for letting too many people off because they believed their stories. EVERY shoplifter wants to be let go. EVERY one.

EVERY shoplifter doesn't think their merchandise should be enough for a company the size of the retailer to care about. EVERY shoplifter will never do it again. EVERY shoplifter has never done it before.

I am not being cruel. I am telling you that so many people have used the same excuses that you are using that you will have a hard time getting anyone to believe them... even if, in your case, the excuses happen to be true.