Q: My significant other and I were leaving a Walmart store and apparently the greeter grabbed my friends arm and some words
Were spoken which drew the att. of loss prevention. $94 dollars of items had missed being scanned and even though I was willing to cover what was missing they charged us both with theft.
A:
Although you haven't asked a question, maybe I can provide you the answer you're looking for. In Texas, theft of property valued at less than $100 is a Class C misemeanor, punishable by a fine not to exceed $500. There is no jail time possible as a sentence for a Class C offense.
However, do not take this charge lightly. Theft is a crime of "moral turpitude", meaning that it is behavior that is considered immoral and wrong in and of itself. If you are found guilty of any kind of theft, you will have a theft conviction on your record which will follow you the rest of your life. It cannot be expunged or otherwise "removed" from your permanent record.
There are ways short of an outright dismissal or finding of "not guilty" by which you can avoid a theft conviction, but I will not go into those here. The point you should take away from this response is that you should get a lawyer and go over your choices with him or her.
Walmart usually videotapes customers as they as scan and pay for their purchases. You can be vitually certain that it was not the conversation between your partner and the greeter that got the attention of loss-prevention. It was what the loss-prevention employee saw on those video cameras as you checked out that got their attention.
Please see a lawyer asap and good luck.
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