By Janet Portman , Attorney. Answer: Yes, a defendant can commit the crime of shoplifting without actually leaving the store. All he needs to is to move the property and exercise control over it in a way that is inconsistent with the shop owner's reasonable expectations as to how shoppers will handle merchandise.
For example, shopkeepers know that people will handle an item to examine it, purchase it, try it on, show it to a companion, and so on. Shoppers might even move the item to another department to compare it with other merchandise. The critical question is how that movement and carrying is accomplished.
Let's say a woman places several blouses over her arm, takes them to her husband in another part of the store, and shows them to him. Under these circumstances, the woman probably does not have the intent to steal the blouses.
But if she takes those items and places them in her backpack or under her coat, a prosecutor might be able to convince the jury that these actions indicate an intent to leave without paying for them. Accordingly, guards or salespeople may approach and detain someone who has taken these steps, even before the person leaves the store.
Many clerks and security personnel will not, however, apprehend a suspected thief until that person has actually left the store. The reason is not that they lack justification to detain the person before that moment. Instead, they simply want an open-and-shut case. Most walk in, go about their pilfering, and then walk out, though at least one thief rode their bike into the store and departed the same way, carefully navigating their two-wheeler down a narrow aisle.
In San Francisco, there is no attempt to conceal theft, and there is almost never any effort by store employees, including security personnel, to confront the thieves.
The most they do is record the thefts with their cell phones. Why is shoplifting so rampant? I doubt many would, knowing that a Rite Aid employee was murdered recently after trying to stop two thieves. Moreover, a confrontation within the store risks harming not only store staff but also customers, so employees are almost certainly instructed by their managers to do nothing.
Because of this law, California is extending an open invitation to anyone to walk in and take. It is not just pharmacies that are being ransacked. Sadly, this may have little effect on shoplifting, given that most of these thefts are by individuals, rather than groups, and it will still be up to police and prosecutors to charge these as felonies.
What is needed is a change to the state law that makes shoplifting at a much lower dollar level a felony, to provide adequate incentives to individuals not to commit these crimes.
Crime is rising almost everywhere in California, including violent crime. Homicides in California jumped 31 percent last year, making the deadliest year since The 2, homicides in represent an increase of over Homicides in Los Angeles rose 40 percent to , and they rose 35 percent to in San Francisco. Both San Francisco and Los Angeles feature district attorneys who are perceived to be soft on crime, and both are facing the possibility of a recall election.
California will allow 63, prisoners, out of a population of ,, the possibility of early release. This includes death row inmate Richard Allen Davis, one of murderers in the system, who was a released felon when he murdered Polly Klaas in Sadly, this is Gavin Newsom.
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