 Hi, I'm David Cantor with the Law Offices of David Michael Cantor. Today I'm going to talk about shoplifting or organized retail theft. Now under Arizona revised statute 13-1805 shoplifting occurs when a person enters a shop and knowingly obtains goods with the intent to deprive or not pay for those goods. Now organized retail theft is on a much bigger scale and it's a much bigger scheme than shoplifting, but many times they overcharge shoplifting as organized retail theft. Now the punishment, if there is no prior convictions and it's under $1,000 it's a misdemeanor. That's probation up to six months in jail, a $2,500 fine with an 84% surcharge on top. If the theft is of one to $2,000 that was shoplifted, then it's a class 6 felony with probation up to two years in prison. If it's 2,000 or more, it's probation with up to two and a half years in prison. Now if a specialized container was used to conceal the items, then and only then or if you have two prior shoplifting convictions or burglary or robbery, they can charge you with a class 4 and that's the most serious of these felonies. That is probation up to 3.75 years in prison. Now probation means the judge can say, I'm going to put you on probation and give you certain conditions, remain law abiding, report to your probation officer, don't use drugs. But the judge can also say, I'm going to give you jail as a condition or probation, anywhere from zero days in jail up to a year in jail. So it's important you have a defense attorney who knows what they're doing so you don't get any jail. Possible defenses are lack of intent. That means I'm walking out of the store, my hands were full, I'm checking out and I forgot I was holding one of the items. Obviously we look to see whether you paid for other items before you left. Lack of knowledge. This occurs when, oh wow this is a really good deal and somebody else switched out the price tag and someone else was going to go up to the register but they got scared and left the store and here you are looking at a brand new TV for $49 and you didn't realize it. Sometimes you'll see where people switch items inside of a box. So you're walking out with a box that's supposed to hold one type of low price TV but instead it's got the highest plasma screen in there and somebody else switched it without your knowledge. Common defenses are Miranda Wright's violations, coerced statements by the police, denial of right to counsel if you ask for a lawyer and they wouldn't give you one. We will use video analysis. Almost every store has videotape and we'll check all of the videos to show whether you in fact were somebody was just rushing along or whether it was something else. Now sloppy police reports that's one of the biggest defenses we use. We see it all the time. So if you or a loved one was charged with shoplifting or organized retail theft, give us a call set a free initial 30-minute consultation in our office. It doesn't cost you anything. Come on in and meet with us. We have multiple certified criminal law specialists and we'd love to help you out on this so I look forward to hearing from you soon.