by Brenda J. Shaffer

Created on: May 27, 2008

UNDERSTANDING THE CONSEQUENCES OF STEALING

Most of us learn as small children that it's not right to steal. Do you remember picking up that candy bar when your parents weren't looking? Do you remember the time you picked up that pack of gum and your parents told you to put it back? What about the time you picked up that lollipop and your mother or father didn't notice it until you were in the car? They may have taken you back into the store and made you hand it back to a store employee. The consequences were different when you were a child. Your parents disciplined you to teach you right from wrong.

What are the consequences of stealing when you're an adult? Well, if you steal your best friend's boyfriend or girlfriend, you may lose a very good friend for life. Shoplifting, or retail theft, is another type of stealing. The consequences of that vary depending on the value of the items that are taken.

In Pennsylvania, you can spend up to seven (7) years behind bars for shoplifting. This penalty is if you take anything valued over $2000, steal a car, or it's your third offense. If you're found guilty of shoplifting, you also pay fines anywhere from $10 to $500. You also get a 30-day suspension of your driver's license for a third offense.
In Pennsylvania, you also can get arrested for changing labels and price tags, or doing anything that leads a retailer to lose money on the full value of an item. As an added consequence, you'll also get a permanent criminal record. This record makes it very hard to get a job or a loan, not to mention the embarrassment of having to show your prison ID, when necessary, since your license would be suspended.

Law enforcement estimates that 90% of the population in this country will commit some type of retail theft sometime in their life. In a case where a minor steals an item, a warning is sometimes issued to them. The parents are also called. Of all the new businesses that are open, about one-third of them fail because someone gets the bright idea that they need a certain item, didn't have the money to pay for it, and chose to steal it instead of paying for it.

Because shoplifting happens in most, if not all, businesses at one time or another, these businesses are forced to raise their prices to cover their losses from shoplifting. About $16 billion is lost every year because of stolen merchandise. Now, that's a lot of zeroes and a lot of stealing.

If you decide that stealing is right for you, consider these "benefits" that you will get:

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