Walk It Through: The Price Tag
A switched tag as shoplifting, a merchant's reasonable detention, and a civil suit besides.
In a store, a shopper swaps the price tag from a cheap shirt onto an expensive one and heads to the register.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One store and one shirt. Firearms, street gangs, and the criminal case itself are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Misdemeanor classHow Arizona grades misdemeanors: class 1 carries up to six months and $2,500, class 2 up to four months and $750, class 3 up to 30 days and $500.
- ShopliftingKnowingly obtaining goods displayed for sale, with intent to deprive, by removing them without paying, switching a price tag, moving them into another container, or concealment.
- TheftMore than taking: knowingly controlling another's property with intent to deprive, misusing entrusted property, obtaining property or services by a material misrepresentation, or keeping lost property without reasonable efforts to find the owner. Less than $1,000 is a class 1 misdemeanor.