C
cyberdyne
Guest
What is the name of your state? PA
Hello,
My friend was just charged with Attempted Theft (3 counts) and Theft by Deception (3 counts). I first wanted to know the severity of the situation.
The situation is this:
A few weeks ago, my friend at his university's bookstore and removed price tags from textbooks and placed them on three (3) textbooks he owned. The purpose of this was to sell the books back which is a common occurance but with the tag swapping, he would be likely to get a significantly higher price for the sell back. The cashier noticed the tags were not scanning the title of the book and just removed them from the book uncovering the true UPC. Ironically, with the actual price tags, they had no buyback value. Therefore, he did not receive any money from the bookstore. He left in his car with his textbooks and apparently a store clerk followed him outside and got his plate number.
The police caught up with him later and was identified by the store clerk who was sitting in the police vehicle. He was asked to go to the police station (but was not arrested or charged with anything). Though, they asked to take his textbooks that were in his car that were to be sold back to the school. He did hand the books over to the police. The police later questioned him at the police station as to what happened when he tried to sell his books back and to what else he was doing in the bookstore. They did not inform him he was being invesigated or inform him of any rights before or after questioning. They said that they wanted to resolve the misunderstanding as quickly as possible and if he lied in any way that they would not be lenient if something unlawful was done. He "cooperated" by admitting to what he was doing and even wrote on a piece of paper detailing the situation and signing it as asked by the police.
As of a couple of days ago, he received a notice in the mail that he was being charged with Attempted Theft (3 counts) and Theft by Deception (3 counts) and a hearing date was scheduled.
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Did the police violate any procedures here? Also, will they be able to use his statements and even the written statement against him without notifying him of his rights to an attorney? They simply told him they wanted to understand the situation and if they could have a written statement, it would be easier to figure out the misunderstanding.
Thank you for answering my questions and pointing me in the right direction.
Hello,
My friend was just charged with Attempted Theft (3 counts) and Theft by Deception (3 counts). I first wanted to know the severity of the situation.
The situation is this:
A few weeks ago, my friend at his university's bookstore and removed price tags from textbooks and placed them on three (3) textbooks he owned. The purpose of this was to sell the books back which is a common occurance but with the tag swapping, he would be likely to get a significantly higher price for the sell back. The cashier noticed the tags were not scanning the title of the book and just removed them from the book uncovering the true UPC. Ironically, with the actual price tags, they had no buyback value. Therefore, he did not receive any money from the bookstore. He left in his car with his textbooks and apparently a store clerk followed him outside and got his plate number.
The police caught up with him later and was identified by the store clerk who was sitting in the police vehicle. He was asked to go to the police station (but was not arrested or charged with anything). Though, they asked to take his textbooks that were in his car that were to be sold back to the school. He did hand the books over to the police. The police later questioned him at the police station as to what happened when he tried to sell his books back and to what else he was doing in the bookstore. They did not inform him he was being invesigated or inform him of any rights before or after questioning. They said that they wanted to resolve the misunderstanding as quickly as possible and if he lied in any way that they would not be lenient if something unlawful was done. He "cooperated" by admitting to what he was doing and even wrote on a piece of paper detailing the situation and signing it as asked by the police.
As of a couple of days ago, he received a notice in the mail that he was being charged with Attempted Theft (3 counts) and Theft by Deception (3 counts) and a hearing date was scheduled.
----------------------------------------
Did the police violate any procedures here? Also, will they be able to use his statements and even the written statement against him without notifying him of his rights to an attorney? They simply told him they wanted to understand the situation and if they could have a written statement, it would be easier to figure out the misunderstanding.
Thank you for answering my questions and pointing me in the right direction.
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