Is Shoplifting Larceny?

Shoplifting is one of the most common types of Larceny that occurs in the North Carolina Judicial system. The majority of the time, individuals are taped on a video camera and followed throughout a retail establishment. Unfortunately, once a person is placed into custody, they are nearly forced into signing a document by store security that admits guilt. This admission of guilt may then be used against you in a criminal proceeding.

A Criminal Lawyer can assist you by reviewing any evidence that may be used against you in discovery. By thoroughly reviewing all the evidence a Criminal Lawyer who is familiar with defending individuals charged with Shoplifting will be able to represent you in trial and possibly negate the admissibility of evidence that the prosecution may try to use against you. Whether your shoplifting charge is considered a Misdemeanor or a Felony will depend on the value of the goods stolen, but remember Shoplifting is considered a “crime of moral turpitude” and can stigmatize anyone’s record. Once a crime of moral turpitude is placed on your record it may tarnish your criminal record forever by affecting your ability to obtain specific employment, governmental clearance, and even your ability to partake in social clubs and functions.

North Carolina has no offense called shoplifting

In North Carolina the word shoplifting describes conduct, not a charge. The citation or warrant will name one of several sections. The most common are larceny under G.S. 14-72, concealment of merchandise under G.S. 14-72.1, and larceny from a merchant under G.S. 14-72.11. Which one appears on the paper decides the class, the court and everything that follows.

The distinction is not academic. Concealment under G.S. 14-72.1(a) can be complete while the goods are still inside the shop and still on the shelf line; larceny under G.S. 14-72 requires a taking and a carrying away with the intent to deprive the owner permanently. A single incident in a Charlotte store can therefore support one charge and not the other, depending on where the person was stopped and what the video shows.

Concealment under G.S. 14-72.1 rises in class with each repeat

G.S. 14-72.1(a) reaches “Whoever, without authority, willfully conceals the goods or merchandise of any store, not theretofore purchased by such person, while still upon the premises of such store.” The same subsection provides that goods found concealed on a person and not previously purchased are prima facie evidence of a wilful concealment, which is why the location of the item — a pocket, a bag, under clothing — dominates these files. G.S. 14-72.1(d) covers the neighboring conduct of moving a price tag to higher-priced goods, or substituting a false price tag, and presenting the goods for purchase.

The class escalates on a timetable written into G.S. 14-72.1(e). A first conviction under subsection (a) or (d) is a Class 3 misdemeanor. A second offense committed within three years after the date of a conviction under the section is a Class 2 misdemeanor. A third or subsequent offense committed within five years after the date the defendant was convicted of two other offenses under the section is a Class 1 misdemeanor.

G.S. 14-72.1(d1) sits apart from that ladder. Violating subsection (a) by using “a lead-lined or aluminum-lined bag, a lead-lined or aluminum-lined article of clothing, or a similar device to prevent the activation of any antishoplifting or inventory control device” is a Class H felony. Preparation, in other words, is what converts a misdemeanor into a felony under that subsection.

The $1,000 line decides whether a shoplifting allegation is a felony larceny

Where the charge is larceny rather than concealment, North Carolina applies the general rule in G.S. 14-72(a): larceny “of the value of more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) is a Class H felony,” and larceny “where the value of the property or goods is not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), is a Class 1 misdemeanor.” G.S. 14-70 supplies the background default, providing that “unless otherwise provided by statute, larceny is a Class H felony.”

Value in North Carolina is the fair market value of the goods at the time and place of the taking. Loss-prevention reports usually record the full retail price, which is the number the State starts from, but it is not automatically the number the court must accept — clearance pricing, damage and the ordinary discount between shelf price and market value all bear on it. G.S. 14-72(a) itself contemplates the argument, directing that “in all cases of doubt, the jury shall, in the verdict, fix the value of the property stolen.”

Where several items are taken in one continuous transaction, North Carolina treats the episode as a single larceny, and the values are added together. That is how a series of low-value items can cross the $1,000 threshold in a single stop.

Five situations make larceny from a merchant a Class H felony regardless of value

G.S. 14-72.11 creates the offense of larceny from a merchant and makes it a Class H felony. It applies where the larceny is committed in any of the circumstances the section lists, and value only enters two of them.

• Taking property worth more than $200 out through an exit door “erected and maintained to comply with the requirements of” the federal emergency-exit regulations
• Removing, destroying or deactivating “a component of an antishoplifting or inventory control device” to prevent its activation
• Affixing “a product code created for the purpose of fraudulently obtaining goods or merchandise” from a merchant at less than the actual sale price
• Taking infant formula “valued in excess of one hundred dollars ($100.00)”
• Exchanging or attempting to exchange property, knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe it is stolen, for cash, a gift card, a merchandise card or other value

Organized retail theft requires more than an agreement

G.S. 14-86.6 addresses conduct beyond a single person and a single trip, and each of its limbs carries elements that a bare agreement does not satisfy. Subsection (a)(1) reaches a person who conspires with another “to commit theft of retail property from retail establishments with the intent to sell that retail property for monetary or other gain,” and who “takes or causes that retail property to be placed in the control of a retail property fence or other person in exchange for consideration.” The onward transfer for consideration is part of the offense, not an afterthought.

Subsection (a)(2) reaches receiving or possessing retail property taken or stolen in violation of subsection (a)(1) while knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe it is stolen. Subsection (a)(3) reaches a person who conspires “with two or more other persons as an organizer, supervisor, financier, leader, or manager” to engage for profit in a scheme to transfer or sell property stolen from a merchant — so that limb requires at least three conspirators, not two.

The section grades the offense by value “aggregated over a 90-day period.” Retail property exceeding $1,500 makes it a Class H felony, exceeding $20,000 a Class G felony, exceeding $50,000 a Class F felony, and exceeding $100,000 a Class C felony. Because the window is ninety days rather than a single incident, a person can be charged at a class far above what any one alleged trip would support.

Store detention, and the statement written out in the back office

North Carolina gives merchants a limited statutory protection for detaining suspected shoplifters, and the two relevant subsections say the same thing rather than one adding to the other. G.S. 14-72.1(c) shields a merchant, the merchant’s agent or employee, or a peace officer from civil liability for detention, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment or false arrest where the detention is “upon the premises of the store or in a reasonable proximity thereto, is in a reasonable manner for a reasonable length of time,” and there was probable cause to believe the person committed the offense created by that section. G.S. 14-72(d) contains a parallel protection for larceny under G.S. 14-72(a).

Both subsections carry the same duty toward a young person. Each provides that where the person detained “is a minor under the age of 18 years,” the merchant or the merchant’s agent or employee shall call or notify, or make a reasonable effort to call or notify, the parent or guardian of the minor during the period of detention. That duty runs to the merchant side of the detention; it is not a general rule about every person who is stopped, and it is not a rule about police questioning.

The protection those subsections give is about civil liability. Neither says anything about whether a written admission taken in a back office is admissible in the criminal case. Whether a statement was voluntary, what was said before it was signed, whether the person was free to leave, and whether the questioner was acting for the State or for the shop are separate questions answered on different principles from the ones that govern questioning by a police officer. Because the answer turns on the specific facts, the recording, the incident report and the identity of the person who took the statement are ordinarily the first items sought in discovery in a Mecklenburg County shoplifting case.

What a first shoplifting conviction carries in North Carolina

Sentencing for a misdemeanor runs through G.S. 15A-1340.23, which sets punishment limits by class and prior conviction level, but the general provisions of that section give way where a specific offense provides otherwise. G.S. 15A-1340.23 provides that the judgment for a person convicted of a Class 3 misdemeanor with no more than three prior convictions consists only of a fine, capped at two hundred dollars ($200.00), and expressly qualifies that rule so that it operates only where a specific offense does not otherwise provide.

G.S. 14-72.1 attaches its own conditions to a suspended sentence. Under G.S. 14-72.1(e) a first conviction is a Class 3 misdemeanor, and where a term of imprisonment is imposed that term “may be suspended only on condition that the defendant perform community service for a term of at least 24 hours.” The subsection sets heavier conditions further up the ladder, and G.S. 14-72.1(g) then limits how any active term under the section is credited and served, providing that the judge may not give credit for the first 24 hours of pre-trial incarceration, that good or gain time may not be used to reduce a mandatory minimum period, and that the defendant may not be released or paroled before that period has been served. Those conditions operate only where a term of imprisonment is in fact imposed and suspended, so a first concealment conviction by a defendant with no more than three prior convictions will ordinarily still be a fine-only judgment under G.S. 15A-1340.23; they bear chiefly on second and subsequent offenses.

A Class 1 misdemeanor is materially different again. The range at prior conviction Level I is one to forty-five days with community punishment the authorized disposition, and the ceiling rises to one hundred and twenty days at Level III. A Class H felony is sentenced instead under the felony chart in G.S. 15A-1340.17, where the offense class and the prior record level together fix the permissible minimum term and the dispositions available.

Beyond the sentence, a theft conviction is generally treated as a crime of moral turpitude, which is why it can carry consequences in licensing, immigration and employment screening out of proportion to the sentence imposed.

The letter from the store’s law firm is a separate civil claim

In North Carolina a retailer may bring a civil action under G.S. 1-538.2 for acts punishable under G.S. 14-72, 14-72.1, 14-72.11, 14-74, 14-86.6, 14-86.7, 14-90 or 14-100. In that action the owner is entitled to recover the value of goods destroyed or the loss in value of goods recovered, consequential damages, punitive damages and reasonable attorneys’ fees, and the section provides that consequential damages “shall not be less than one hundred fifty dollars ($150.00) and shall not exceed three thousand dollars ($3,000).”

The same section makes a parent or guardian of an unemancipated minor liable where the parent “knew or should have known of the propensity of the child to commit such an act” and “had the opportunity and ability to control the child, and made no reasonable effort to correct or restrain the child,” with the same consequential damages limits and without punitive damages.

That civil claim is decided in a civil proceeding. It does not dispose of the criminal charge, and the criminal court does not administer it.

Where a Charlotte shoplifting charge is answered

Misdemeanor concealment and misdemeanor larceny charges from Charlotte and the surrounding towns are calendared in Mecklenburg County District Court, which under G.S. 7A-272(a) has “exclusive, original jurisdiction for the trial of criminal actions, including municipal ordinance violations, below the grade of felony.” A person convicted before a district court judge may appeal for “trial de novo with a jury” in Superior Court under G.S. 15A-1431(b), on notice given “within 10 days of entry of judgment” in open court or in writing to the clerk.

Where the charge is a Class H felony under G.S. 14-72.11 or G.S. 14-72(a), the case proceeds in Superior Court, ordinarily by indictment. Because every offense discussed on this page is either a misdemeanor or a Class H felony, the two routes in G.S. 15A-1341 are within reach: subsection (a1) allows deferred prosecution for a person charged with a Class H or I felony or a misdemeanor, and subsection (a4) allows a conditional discharge on the same class range, each on motion involving the prosecutor and each subject to the findings the statute requires. Where a charge is dismissed outright, G.S. 15A-146(a4) expunges the charges in the case by operation of law where all charges were disposed of on or after 1 December 2021 and all were dismissed without leave, dismissed by the court, or resulted in a finding of not guilty or not responsible — subject to the carve-out for a felony charge dismissed pursuant to a plea agreement.

Common questions

Written for North Carolina law and reviewed by David P. Sheehan, attorney, Charlotte. General information, not legal advice — see the disclaimer.

Related questions

• What Defines Larceny?
• What Defines Robbery?
• What if I Only Have Stolen Property in My Possession?
• What’s Petit Larceny? What’s Grand Larceny?