Shoplifting is a theft crime that involves entering a business and knowingly stealing merchandise. Arizona Revised Statute Section 13-1805 defines shoplifting as knowingly obtaining the goods of another with the intent to deprive that person of such goods while in an establishment in which merchandise is displayed for sale, by any of the following:
Removing goods from a display or any other place within the establishment without paying the purchase price.
Charging the purchase price of the goods to a fictitious person or a real person without that person’s authority.
Paying less than the purchase price of the goods by a trick or artifice, such as removing or substituting a price tag or label.
Transferring the goods from one container to another.
Concealing the goods.
Arizona law presumes a defendant has the necessary mental state to be culpable for shoplifting if he or she knowingly conceals unpurchased merchandise on himself or another person or uses a container, instrument, device or artifice to facilitate the shoplifting crime. Any act that falls within the parameters of Arizona’s shoplifting law could result in an arrest for this crime in Scottsdale.