CALL FOR FREE CONSULTATION
480-I-HAVE-HELP (480) 442-8343)
2 N. Central Ave. Floor 18, Suite 1928 Phoenix, AZ 85004
What Is Theft By Extortion?
You can commit a theft in Arizona in many different ways.
Basically, you commit theft by extortion when you knowingly obtain services or property by threatening to do something.
Furthermore, you can commit a theft through unlawful failure to return rented or leased property or issuing a bad check.
What is Theft by Deception?
Prosecutors can charge you with theft, but they can also charge you with fraud or possession of a forgery device. Just because a theft by deception charge exists, doesn’t mean they can’t charge you with other crimes.
What is Theft of Lost Property?
If you find something, but you didn’t steal it and you find identification on it, you have a duty under the law to make reasonable efforts to get it back to the owner or to contact the owner.
If you don’t try, and then you try and use the item or make it your own, then the courts can charge you with theft.
For example, let’s say you’re walking down the street and you find a credit card on the ground. If there’s not a name on it, you can’t get it back to the person. If there’s a name on it, you don’t make a reasonable effort to get it to the person, and you use it, they could charge you.
Even if no monetary loss occurs, and no money is exchanged, the courts could still charge you with theft. Because he didn’t make reasonable efforts to give it back to the person, and then used it to activate a machine, causing no monetary loss to the owner, he can be charged with theft. Technically, he has committed it.
If I Unknowingly Buy a Stolen Item at a Flea Market, Can I still be Charged with Theft?
This falls under the discretion of the prosecution. Sometimes, you didn’t have any reason to know it was stolen. You won’t be charged.
However, if the person says, “Hey, I stole this. Do you want to buy it from me?” then you’re trafficking stolen property. You’ll be charged.
How Would You Define Theft of Services?
Theft of Services includes hiring people to do a job without paying them. Alternately, you pay them with a bad check.
The actual theft statute in Arizona includes service. All the statutes define this as obtaining services or property by misrepresentation, with intent to deprive.
If you hire someone to do something, and you don’t pay him or her, this is theft. For example, if you hire a cab, you’re hiring them to take you from one place to another. There is an unspoken agreement that you’re going to pay for the services. If you don’t, then that’s considered a theft of services.
Have You Seen People Who Have a Compulsion to Take Something That is Not His?
No! I have never dealt with a person who suffered from that illness.
I know that some mental health issues can enter into the equation, like kleptomania. However, it’s probably very rare.
Is Stealing Usually A Spur of the Moment Decision?
Most cases are beer runs. You see kids or people without much money who want to drink. They run into a grocery store or a gas station, grab a case of beer, and run out.
Then, there are people who are charged with organized retail theft, which is a felony shoplift. This is the more nefarious kind of a scheme right now.
Do You Ever See a Middleclass Person Who Can Afford Things Who Steals, Thus Making a Big Mistake?
I haven’t seen this case!
I’ve never had that issue, but if someone’s charged with a misdemeanor shoplifting, and he has no prior criminal record, the prosecutor will probably offer a diversion program.
A diversion program is often an 8-hour class. As long as the person completes the diversion program, pays the fines, and goes to the class, he can get the entire case dismissed.
For more information on Different Types of Theft, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you’re seeking by calling (480) 442-8343 today.