Theft in Florida can be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony. The difference lies in the value of the stolen property. A person who steals property valued at less than $750.00 commits petit theft. Petit (taken from the word for “small” in French) theft in Florida is a misdemeanor in either the first-degree or second-degree. Shoplifting is called “retail theft” in Florida.
Florida Statutes section 812.014. Section 812.014 defines theft as knowingly obtaining, using, endeavoring to obtain or use, on a temporary or permanent basis, property and in doing so deprives a person of the right to use the property or to derive a benefit from using the property taken. Alternatively, theft occurs when a person used property to the detriment of its owner when the person had no authority to use the stolen property.
Theft is a specific intent crime, meaning that the government must prove that the accused had the in his or her mind the resolve to deprive the property owner of the right to enjoy the property. Additionally, the government must prove that the person accused of theft must have formed the requisite intent to steal.
Degrees of Petit Theft
When a person steals property or goods valued at more than $100.00 but less than $750.00, then the person has committed petit theft in the first degree. Petit theft in the first degree may be punished by incarceration in the county jail for up to one year. The court must impose a definite sentence if the person must be sent to jail. Additionally, the court could impose a fine not to exceed $1,000.00. Petit theft in the first degree is a first-degree misdemeanor under Florida law.
Stolen property valued at less than $100.00 is petit theft in the second degree. Second-degree theft is a second-degree misdemeanor. A second-degree misdemeanor committed in Florida may be punished by incarceration in the county jail for a definite term not exceeding 60 days. Furthermore, the judge could penalize the defendant by assessing a fine of not more than $500.00.
Collateral Consequences of a Conviction for Petit Theft
Convictions for theft under Florida law could impose additional penalties upon a person beyond those contained in the criminal theft statute. The penalties are civil by nature and not criminal. One collateral consequence of a theft conviction in Florida relates to one’s driver’s license. Any person convicted of theft in Florida could have his or her license suspended for a first offense. License suspension is mandatory for subsequent offenses of theft.
The suspension is maxed at six months for the first time the Florida Department of Highway Safety suspends the convicted offender’s driver’s license. A person convicted of any crime alleging theft for a second time faces a period of license suspension not to exceed more than one year. A person under 18-years-of-age who is alleged to commit theft could face a license suspension instead of a commitment to the Department of Juvenile Justice, or other sanction if the person has never been convicted of theft previously.
Florida law imposes civil liability on the person convicted of theft. Under Florida law, the person convicted of theft (or a parent or guardian of a person under 18-years-of-age) could be found liable for the loss to the victim. The victim could claim money damages for three-times the value of the stolen property or $200.00. Moreover, the victim of theft could seek an award for attorney’s fees and costs of litigation.
Shoplifting Offenses in Florida
Shoplifting is usually charged as a petit theft offense in Florida, provided that the value of the property does not exceed $750. If the value of the stolen property surpasses $750, then the case will be charged as a felony. Additionally, the shoplifting of a firearm is a third-degree felony irrespective of the value of the firearm.
The penalties for shoplifting, also called retail theft, are the same as petit theft unless the offender was once previously convicted for shoplifting. In that case, section 812.015(2) of the Florida Statutes requires the court to punish the offender more harshly than if the crime was a first offense. The judge could order the accused to pay a larger fine and order the accused to perform community service as a component of the punishment for shoplifting.
Shoplifting is more than concealing merchandise and walking out of the store without paying, although that is one common method of shoplifting. Other examples of behavior that could be prosecuted as shoplifting or retail theft are changing, removing, or altering price tags, switching merchandise from one container to another, wheeling a shopping cart out of the store, or in some way taking property that deprives the merchant of the benefit of the product through sale or trade.
Petit theft is essentially the same act as retail theft except that a person who commits retail theft steals from a merchant or a purveyor of goods.
Theft, when the perpetrator carries a firearm, irrespective of whether carrying the firearm was lawful itself, could implicate Florida’s 10-20-Life law. Under Florida Statutes 775.087, also known as the 10-20-Life law, the court reclassifies the underlying felony because of the presence of a firearm.
Florida law considers the presence of a firearm during the commission of a felony to be an aggravating circumstance. Thus, under the 10-20-Life law, a third-degree felony becomes a second-degree felony, a second-degree felony becomes a first-degree felony, and a first-degree felony becomes a life-felony. Additionally, if the person possessed a firearm during a theft, then the minimum punishment becomes ten years in the state penitentiary. The punishment escalates to a 20-year prison sentence if a shot was fired during the theft and becomes life in prison when another dies or suffers a grievous bodily injury during the commission of a felony enumerated in the statute.
Theft and robbery are related crimes. Both crimes involve the taking and carrying away of another’s property with the intent to deprive the owner of the benefit of the property. On the one hand, theft is stealing. Robbery, on the other hand, is stealing property that is in the control of another person or on another’s person accomplished by the threat of force or injury. The element of force or threat of force and taking property under the immediate control of the victim distinguishes robbery from theft.
The prosecutor has two avenues to use to prove the value of the stolen property to prove a theft charge. The government could elect to prove the market value of the purloined property at the time and place of the theft. Failing that, the government could seek to admit evidence of the purchase price, the condition of the item when stolen, the amount the item could have depreciated, the quality of the property stolen, and the fair market value of the goods.
The practical import of the law relating to proving the value of the property is that the state’s attorney cannot simply rely upon the uncorroborated testimony of the alleged victim to estimate the value of the property without accounting for variables like the condition of the goods. A court might even accept the replacement value of the property as competent evidence of the value of the property stolen. In other words, the proof of the value of the case must be sufficiently definite based upon objective criteria and not a guess.
Shoplifting and the First-Time Offender might be able to beat the charges, get them dismissed, or receive a reduced sentence.
The standard of proof is incredibly low and is usually easy to satisfy. However, when the prosecutor reads the police report before filing charges — which is essentially an affidavit from the police officer that recites the allegations of the case — the prosecutor could see that the proof needed for a guilty verdict is lacking and reduce the charge or abandon the charge altogether.
Having an attorney fight on your behalf even before the prosecutor issues the charges formally will help you avoid starting a criminal record.
The prosecution has the authority to issue charges in Florida, but it is up to the judge to decide which punishment is appropriate. The judge could decide the appropriate punishment for a first-time offender, even if the prosecution refused to drop the charges during the review stage. A judge could order the accused to enter and complete a pretrial diversion program successfully. The pretrial diversion program requires the accused to attend classes, report to a probation officer, perform community service, and not get in any more trouble with the criminal law.
If pretrial diversion is not an option, then the next-best plea bargain would be withholding adjudication. The court does not enter a conviction in this instance. Instead, the court places the offender on probation and withholds a finding or adjudication of guilt for a specified time. The court will close the case without entering a guilty finding if the offender satisfies all of the conditions imposed by the judge. However, violating any term of probation could force the court to revoke its promise to withhold adjudication and enter a guilty finding. The court could re-sentence the offender at that point.