I need some legal advice please!!?

[kccurious_chick]

A family member of mine recently shoplifted something.  (He is old enough to know better)  I guess he stole something worth 20 dollars from the store, and he got away.  But he says an investigator or policeman? went to another family members house to look for him.  He said they saw the vehicle he was driving on camera and got the plate number or something.  He is afraid to go to jail, and thinks they may let it go.  Would he get in more trouble if he took the item back to the store himself?  Would they not look for him if he had someone else take the item in and give it back?  Police or lawyers assistants or lawyers please?  And what makes people shoplift anyway?  I understand stealing when you are hungry, but why do people steal items and risk legal ramifications for things that they can afford, and that aren't really "movable" or profitable if you flipped them?

[Apple]

Unfortunately, I am not an attorney or police officer; however I had a friend involved in an incident regarding a fire extinguisher, which tripped an alarm system, which caused the fire dept to show up, who then saw the "smoke" which was really the fire extinguisher halon, and then called more trucks and began setting up to fight the fire.

They were quite pissed about all of this, and there were rumblings of prosecution for a bunch of things (since this was a mid-rise building).

Anyway, find a decent criminal defense attorney in the phone book, offer to pay them a couple hundred bucks and see what they say.  Best case, the attorney makes it go away and it only costs a couple hundred bucks, worst case, he'll want an attorney if he gets prosecuted.

[rx78788]

I would take it back to the store right now.  They may drop the charges as it might cost more to prosecute him in the long run.  I'm not a lawyer or anything but that's my advice to you.

[mailaccount63]

Have the person that did the shoplifting take the item back to the store IMMEDIATELY!!!