Wal-Mart ‘Rolls Back’ Minimum Age for Prosecution

Written by Nickel - 2 Comments

A year after relaxing their policy on the prosecution of shoplifters, Wal-Mart is cracking down. They’re now recommending that first-time shoplifters 16 years or older be prosecuted (they previously reserved prosecution for ages18 and up). They’re also shortening the amount of time the store will wait for the offender’s parents to show up before calling the cops from 90 minutes to an hour. They have, however, retained the recommendation that first-time violatiors (regardless of age) be given little more than a slap on the wrist as long as the merchandise in question totalled less than $25. I guess that means that low-dollar items are still free at Wal-Mart if you haven’t been caught stealing there before.

[Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer via The Consumerist]

Published on July 12th, 2007 - 2 Comments
Filed under: Miscellany
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About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!

Comments (scroll down to add your own):

“I guess that means that low-dollar items are still free at Wal-Mart if you haven’t been caught stealing there before. ;)”

I love it! LOL.
Comment by Patrick — Jul 12th 2007 @ 4:09 pm
I can vouch for this - not through personal experience, mind you, but through a friend of a friend who does loss prevention for Wally World. She joked that you’d only get a slap on the wrist and they’d write down your name if you were caught with items under a certain dollar amount.

Not sure if tax is included or not.
Comment by Scott — Jul 13th 2007 @ 12:55 pm