@DavePi wrote:
Up to $500 is a misdemeanor. Anything over is a felony.
Different states have different laws on this.... However, most states will also permit a prosecutor to to combine multiple offenses that are individually misdemeanors into a single felony if the prosecutor can show that it is a specific pattern or chain of events. (i.e. The cashier who takes $400 every day from a cash register for 500 days will be prosecuted for the theft of the full $200,000.) We really don't know much about the specific situation mentioned. I suspect that we are talking about somebody who swipes more than a candy bar - as the motivation was to, effectively, give him/herself a better compensation than the low shopping fees offered. However, we also don't have any idea if said shopper's activities amount to the commission of a felony.
There are two interesting discussions that came come out of this thread - if approached correctly:
1. Is mystery shopping a viable enterprise for a person who has served his/her time after a felony conviction?
2. What is our responsibility as shoppers if we have acquaintances who include theft as a part of their mystery shopping experiences?
My thought:
1. Yes! Mystery shopping provides a very good opportunity for a convicted felon to enter the workforce and chase an honest life after having served his/her debt to society.
2. We need to find a way to report said shopper's sorry butt. Such shoppers hurt the industry and put honest shoppers in a position where they cannot compete with the thief by working for the same low fees. I went into more detail in another thread.
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