<p>OK, so a friend of mine is desperate and she asked for my help but i don’t know anything about the laws. My friend went into a Marshalls, switched price tags (making 10 dollar items to 2 dollar items) on around 5-6 items. She went to checkout and the employee became suspcious so she asked 3 managers. Soon a crowd of 10 management people went to check the prices and found that the tags had been switched. They were suspicious but she was really defensive so she paid for a few other things (but left all the things that had been switched behind) and left before they can ask anything. however, she did not have cash on her so she paid with a credit card…so the question is:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Can she be charged with a felony/get caught even if they didn’t stop her on the same day? I mean, it’s possible that they can view the surveillance cameras again and then call the cops and use her credit card to chase her down. </p></li>
<li><p>If she uses a different card, with the same name, at the store again? Will they know that she switched price tags since i know a lot of stores have backgrounds of customers?</p></li>
<li><p>If she didn’t sign anything or go to a backroom, can the police still get involved after a while?</p></li>
<li><p>She is going to an ivy league and she’s afraid her future will be affected. She told me that she only switched 5-6 items, but she didnt buy anyof them…will her life be affected forever?</p></li>
<li><p>can the police become involved after a week?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I already told her what she did was awful and morally wrong. I pretty much grilled this into her. So please no more comments about how stupid she is, etc…just tell her what she can do at this point and how scared should she be?</p>
<p>so you want cc member to help a criminal? the fact that you posted this here is messed up. she should feel really scared even if she isn’t gonig to get in any trouble…serves her right.</p>
<p>They can press charges at any time as it’s before the statute of limitations, I believe. At the store I used to work for, switching price tags was taken extremely seriously. And customers who are caught doing this, are put on a sort of “black list” (of course, not actually called that. But there are pictures of them in the storeroom and their names in the computers) and the store may press charges. (Again, this is at the store I worked for, I don’t know if this applies everywhere.)</p>
<p>She, more or less, tried to steal from the store.
At some stores, if the register doesn’t add up to what’s been sold, the employee gets blamed. </p>
<p>I would suggest not going back to that store for awhile.</p>
<p>Probably not the best place to seek for legal advice, especially since none of us know the nature of the circumstances and are equipped with enough experience/knowledge to hazard a guess. Sorry. </p>
<p>If she is seriously losing some sleep over thing (as I would assume), best to ask a lawyer. Some offer free advice. I know shoplifting itself is a misdemeanor (depending on the amount, of course), but switching price tags might be perceived as fraud.</p>
<p>Maybe, she should try to resolving this store manager in private - perhaps, pay restitution or something. But first I would suggest getting ACTUAL legal advice from real lawyer and not a bunch of teenagers.</p>
<p>I’m not sure this is the right place to ask this, I mean how much are high school kids supposed to know about law enforcement, especially a tricky situation like this? You should go check out Yahoo Answers, there you can ask real cops and lawyers and adults who may know more. But in my opinion, here it goes:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The cops may find her afterwards. I don’t know what they would do, maybe just talk to her, give her a warning, possible minor misdemeanor but definitely not a felony. Felonies are the highest crime possible- rape, murder, burglary, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>I’m not exactly sure. I think they would know it’s her again if she used the same card since they check that stuff by numbers, but if it’s a different card number with the same name I think it should be okay since lots of people have the same first and last name.</p></li>
<li><p>If the store alerts the cops they still can.</p></li>
<li><p>It should not affect being allowed to attend her school. Like I said, I think at the most it would be a minor misdemeanor and future employers do not find out about that little stuff. Only misdemeanors/felonies depending on the state.</p></li>
<li><p>Same as 3.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Yes, they can get her name from the credit card company and press charges. However, I don’t see it happening. Management figured out what she did. They could have taken down her information, but chose not to. She just can’t go back to the store. </p>
<p>And Statutes of Limitations are generally measured in years. Think 2-10 years for shoplifting depending on the state.</p>
<p>Nothing really to do but stay low and wait it out. If the cops get involved, there’s really nothing she can do about it. If not, she can consider herself lucky and learn from that lesson. </p>
<p>Shoplifting is only a felony if the police are involved. If you are found guilty of petty shoplifting, but they don’t call the police, they may send a civil demand, and leave it at that. </p>
<p>I’m not sure how this works with the intent to shoplift, though.</p>
<ol>
<li>don’t know</li>
<li>don’t go back. ever.</li>
<li>don’t know</li>
<li>schools can rescind acceptances (or, if you started, expel) for a lot of stuff. Check on the school’s website to find out. If authorities (cops, detective, whatever) get involved, I’d get worried. Otherwise, you should be fine.<br></li>
<li>Ever hear of cold cases? These are cases that detectives start again after many years (at least that’s the premise of the show). So, based off that, cops can probably do anything anytime. Never heard a law against that.<br></li>
</ol>
<p>Just my 2 cents. I’m not a lawyer or anything, so I don’t know all that mumbo jumbo.</p>
<p>Good that she got caught. I worked at a Marshalls in my city. Customers would steal, try to switch tags, pop off a tag then try to get it for a lower price through price checks DAILY. We had cameras but security only came ONCE throughout the entire year I worked there. I feel no sympathy for her. When people switch up tags, the store loses money, meaning I slowly lost money from my paychecks.</p>
<p>Credit card machines usually only get the numbers off the accounts, not the actual information on the card owner unless it was a company owned card (like a Marshall’s card ie). It’s possible with investigation to find the card holders name and pursue charges but in this case its not worth it to the store to find that information and press charges. This is only done when the amount stolen is classified as a felony or major legal investigation is needed. I’d advise her not to return for some time.</p>
<p>Switching price tags is not a felony if the items are $10, it’s called “petty theft:”. A felony is only conceived if the total amount of merchandise stolen exceeds $1,000 in most cases. Otherwise its charged as a misdemeanor that is put under your record as a “minor traffic violation.” If she is under 18, it gets ex sponged from her record when she becomes a legal adult.</p>
<p>It depends on your state, but the charges are usually less than misdemeanor fine if found guilty and in most cases, an officer will issue a ticket.</p>
<p>If they didn’t pursue at the store then they won’t pursue in the future. It costs them money to get her card investigated. Besides, they got to keep their merchandise so the incentive isn’t really there.</p>
<p>If anyone calls her relating to the incident, tell her to hire a lawyer. Chances are she has money if shes going to an ivy~</p>
<p>Lol. OP, the problem with your thread is that you’re asking a bunch of stuck up know-it-alls for legal advice, something that is not good when hsl is already bad enough for regular advice. So just fyi, all the cold cases you see on the show are major crimes, which aren’t subject to the statute of limitations. But just use your common sense here. Are police going to keep a CASE on something like this? </p>
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<p>Right, when your one Marshall’s out of the thousands of retail Marshall’s gets shoplifted, the standard wage on Marshall’s employees (which I hazard a guess is minimum wage) gets lowered.</p>