"Can you be arrested for retail theft in Illinois if you didn't even leave the store? Welcome, my name is Steve Fagan, from the Law Firm of Fagan, Fagan & Davis criminal defense attorney practicing in the state of Illinois. Join me for a minute while we talk about that question Can you be arrested for retail theft in Illinois if you didn't even leave the store? First of all, everybody knows retail theft is basically shoplifting, right? Not quite, shoplifting means taking an item that's for sale, walking out the door and not paying for it. That's the most common thing that happens, but you can also be arrested for retail theft, charged with retail theft, even if you haven't left the store. How? I'll tell you, if you go past the point of the register, the point of payment in a store, that's one way. Another way is if you change tags, and you try to check out with a lower price. Additionally, if you somehow hide items in your clothing or put it in your pocket or in your purse, or in a bag with a false bottom, those are all ways you can be arrest for retail theft or guilty of retail theft without even having left the store. Another way is perhaps you have tried to return something that you don't own or it was taken from the store for money or credit. For instance if you rent to own something and stop paying the store can make what's called a written demand, and a 10 day amend. If you fail to respond to that and you keep the product that may be retail theft, if you're a store employee ringing up a bogus discount or a wrong price deliberately is retail theft, even though you never left the store. Retail theft is a very serious charge. It can be charged as a Class A misdemeanor, which is the most serious type of misdemeanor in Illinois. Or in some cases depending on the monetary value can be charged as a felony in Illinois. So once again theft is very serious and you can be charged even though you never left the store in a number of different ways. Thank you for joining me, my name is Steve Fagan, from the Law Firm of Fagan, Fagan & Davis. If your facing retail theft charges right now, pick up the phone, call us at (847) 635-8200 or email us at office@ffdlawyers.com we'll be happy to talk to you about how we can help your case."