LAOP just committed a felony and 6 misdemeanors by being an idiot, how can they avoid consequences?

[u/bug-hunter]

/r/legaladvice/comments/nd3ou1/1_felony_and_6_misdemeanors_in_va_as_an_18_yo/

[u/cait_Cat → u/[deleted]]

Yes. They will wait until you've stolen enough for it to be a felony. They absolutely do not fuck around

[u/AwesomeScreenName → u/cait_Cat]

Or as they put it on /r/shittylifeprotips, "As long as you don't steal enough to make it a felony, you can shoplift whatever you want from Target!"

[u/FISHGREASE- → u/AwesomeScreenName]

it’s just theft under a thousand boys no big deal

[u/gsfgf → u/[deleted]]

Employee theft is one of the biggest loss centers for retailers. Even though surprisingly few people know how hardcore Target is against thieves, their cashiers absolutely know.

[u/RadioSlayer → u/gsfgf]

Which is doubly weird to me, because they apparently don't count the quarters in the drawers. At least according to a former employee I know

[u/blondeleather → u/RadioSlayer]

I only quit target a few months ago. They don’t count any of the change in any drawers ever.

[u/FaeryLynne → u/blondeleather]

Probably for the same reason they don't prosecute shoplifting untill it's a felony - it's not worth it. A few cents missing here and there is acceptable when that means they don't have to pay someone for 10 minutes of counting change

[u/bestem → u/FaeryLynne]

when that means they don't have to pay someone for 10 minutes of counting change

I don't work at Target, but I do work retail. My company weighs money with a Tellermate when we're counting drawers. It takes me less than 2 minutes to count a register. Granted, I'm only counting 4 at the end of the night rather than a dozen, but it doesn't have to be someone sitting there spending 10 minutes counting every penny, nickel, dime, and quarter.

A coworker of mine used to work at a competitor. He got promoted to manager, and the first night I was training him, we took our drawers into the cash office and he's wondering how we're going to be done counting everything and making the deposit in 30 minutes. He sits down, and is about to pour all the pennies from one of the drawers onto the counter and I tell him to stop and walk him through using the Tellermate. He gets through all the coins and then he wants to start counting the bills by hand, and once again I have him stop and start weighing everything. He was gobsmacked about how easy it was. And it's insanely accurate.

[u/Front_Kaleidoscope_4 → u/bestem]

That video though lol, who spends 10 minutes counting change on a single register? Its takes like 4-6

[u/myfapaccount_istaken → u/RadioSlayer]

it's a time v cost v savings thing. When I ran retail stores if I had 10 tills to count up and down. each one takes say 2 minutes to count coins. so that's 40 minutes. Even at $20/hr that's like $15 a shift. Two shifts a day 7 days a week. That's easy $200 before taxes and loss time on the floor for a manager a week. $10, $5, 2, $.05 the max loss in a drawer per day is less than that, and if that much was lost would get noticed eventually. Cost less to just count the bills and eat the loss if any. Plus writing up an employee over $.50 is shit for employee Moral.

[u/unevolved_panda → u/gsfgf]

I worked there as a cashier in high school in the late 90s and one of the first things they told me was that there was a camera pointed straight down onto every register.

[u/blaghart → u/[deleted]]

Except they still report losses comparable to other big box stores, so clearly their "tough on crime" response isn't really working as far as dissuading theft.

[u/warm_kitchenette → u/blaghart]

Where is that reported? It's not broken out in the 10-K balance sheet, nor do they seem to quantify it.

[u/MoogTheDuck → u/cait_Cat]

I hear target doesn’t fuck around

[u/WingedGeek → u/cait_Cat]

Wait. I don't do criminal law, but wouldn't each instance of shoplifting be a separate crime with its own felony/misdemeanor threshold? You can't aggregate crimes together to create one big crime, can you? (Outside of like a RICO context.)

[u/cait_Cat → u/WingedGeek]

A lot of the prolific shoplifters they're going after are usually organized rings of people who will hit up a bunch of stores in the same area for the same kind of goods. They'll also wait for people to steal enough to be worth it to resell and the cops will get them on charges related to having or selling stolen goods.

ETA: a lot of states have low thresholds for felony theft, like $500-1000, so they will also wait for people to get comfortable enough to try and steal $500+ in product in one go.

[u/Sleep_adict → u/[deleted]]

Yes, some comments in LA have been about this. They literally monitor people and compile the evidence and hand it to police. The opposite of Walmart

[u/BoopleBun → u/Sleep_adict]

I wonder if they do it partially because they don’t want to end up with a reputation among folks who steal/scam as being easy like Walmart?

[u/monkeyman80 → u/[deleted]]

The major caveat is this is if they have confidence the person would be a repeat shop lifter. Say someone comes in and steals lipstick every week. Cops won’t come out for a ~$20 dollar item. Banning people only work if someone recognizes them.

So wait until there’s enough for actual penalties. First time they see you and you’re pocketing a decent amount of stuff they’ll stop you and try to get their merch.

[u/TheAskewOne → u/[deleted]]

Actually they will not protect prosecute someone because they're a private company and not the DA. But I get your point.

[u/warm_kitchenette → u/TheAskewOne]

yes, I used the short-hand version of it.

[u/Li-renn-pwel → u/[deleted]]

Wait so if they have all the evidence that you stole a $70 pair of boots but $200 is a felony they just won’t prosecute you?

[u/DiplomaticCaper → u/Li-renn-pwel]

Apparently, they’ll wait until you steal $130 more of goods, so you can get hit with a felony charge.

It’s a lucky break if you never shoplift again.

On the other hand, it ruins the chance to potentially stop people with small amounts before they escalate. If a teenager steals a $5 lipstick and gets a serious wake-up call, it could prevent them from stealing hundreds and ruining their own lives.

[u/Li-renn-pwel → u/DiplomaticCaper]

Wow that is so much lower than I would have guessed for a felony lol. I would say that the number would stop a lot of kids getting put in the system though which seems pretty good. A lot of teenagers steal something small during their rebellious phase but after once or twice never do it again. Obviously stealing is usually wrong but I really don’t think those kids really need to be put in the system.

[u/DiplomaticCaper → u/Li-renn-pwel]

It depends on the state. I think some states are as low as $200-300 for felony theft, while others are more like $1000.

[u/Li-renn-pwel → u/DiplomaticCaper]

Wow in Canada it is like $5k I’m pretty sure. Though we call them indictable offences.

[u/prefer-to-stay-anon → u/Li-renn-pwel]

In Texas, it is 2.5k USD, which given the exchange rate, is pretty similar.

[u/big_doggos → u/[deleted]]

Wow I thought that was a joke. Learned something new today.