Torrance, Shoplifting at Walmart, AB2124 Diversion Granted

Our clients, ages eighteen and nineteen, were boyfriend and girlfriend. One was a senior in high school and a star athlete with a letter of acceptance to a prestigious PAC-12 school. The other was a high school graduate, finishing in the top ten percent of his class and then moving on to a local community college, with hopes of transferring to a four-year school later. Neither had a prior criminal history. Both had bright futures.

Summary: Shoplifting, Torrance Walmart, two clients ages 18 and 19, $156 in items taken; judicial diversion granted by judge for both clients, avoiding a conviction that would hurt their future in many ways.

However, as is often the case, those with no need to shoplift do so for the challenge or thrill. Sometimes, it is a misguided curiosity to see how easy it is. Others shoplift out of economic necessity. Others do so for much more complex reasons.
The clients lingered in the store, taking dozens of additional items while walking back and forth, up and down the aisles, dropping even more items into our female client’s purse. This gave loss prevention plenty of time to wait to greet the couple once they decided to exit the store if they did not pay for the items..

Finally, our clients decided to leave and walked directly out the store’s front doors, bypassing the cash registers. Within a few steps of walking just outside the front door, they were stopped by two loss prevention officers, waiting for them there. Our clients remarked later that it seemed like Walmart knew exactly what was happening.

The loss prevention employees brought the clients to the back of the store, where they were asked about the contents of the female client’s purse. The contents were inventoried, which loss prevention found were valued at $156. Most had their bar code stickers removed.

The two were then asked many harassing questions, making our female client burst into tears. The Torrance Police Department was then called and our clients were transported to the Torrance Police Station, where they were booked and, several hours later, released once the police verified by computer that our clients were not sought in any other jurisdiction nationwide.

Torrance Courthouse

---