• dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    That’s not quite how it works, and for legal matters starting any statement with a blanket “In America” you’re almost always starting off on the wrong foot. Laws in America vary state by state, including shoplifting. But that said, I don’t know of anywhere here where it is actually legally fair game. Different states have differing thresholds where they theoretically start giving a shit.

    I believe what you’re thinking of, for example, in California they have de facto decriminalized (but not de jure legalized) shoplifting amounts of less then $950 by classifying this as a misdemeanor under state law, which the police are extremely unlikely to bother to investigate. And even if they do and someone is caught, it is rarely effectively prosecuted. That’s not the same as being “legal.”