Walk It Through: The Price Tag
A changed price as retail theft, a reasonable detention without a search, and a Class A misdemeanor.
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. Services left unpaid, higher values, and the arrest 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.
- Class A misdemeanorThe highest misdemeanor class: up to $10,000, up to 9 months, or both.
- Retail theftTaking, concealing, transferring or keeping a merchant's goods, or altering a price, without consent and meaning to deprive the merchant. Not over $500 is a Class A misdemeanor.
- TheftIntentionally taking, using, concealing or keeping someone else's movable property without consent, intending to deprive the owner permanently. Not over $2,500 is a Class A misdemeanor.