4 Women Face Unusual Felony Charge For Shoplifting

[proud2BlibKansan]

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- Four students from the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg are accused of stealing from several merchants within 72 hours, Overland Park police said.

On-campus roommates Vanessa Petway and Nyeshia Melton, 19, and off-campus roommates Lasharia Baker and Ashli Harris, 19, were stopped by police at the Oak Park Mall on Tuesday.

Police said they found unpaid items from three or possibly four different merchants on the women.

Many times shoplifters face misdemeanor charges, but police said the four women were charged with a felony instead.
"Regardless of the value of those items, if you show them that they were thefts from three different merchants within 72 hours, you can be charged with a felony," said Overland Park Officer Matt Bregel.

Read more: http://www.kmbc.com/news/29946649/detail.html#ixzz1gxOjzOia

[Skittles]

1. that sounds more like organized crime than petty shoplifting

[MindMover]

2. A suggestion----establish a retail transaction tax on each sale

which would be used to establish social services for the people who commit these actions.....

Much better to rehabilitate than to exact revenge by placing them in our justice system which is already broken.....

[Sherman A1]

3. While I agree with you in principle

I would think that a long stint of community service by these young ladies would be a fitting punishment. I am not a fan of the retail transaction tax as it is essentially a sales tax and that as we know is regressive.

I am sure helping to clean parks, wash police cars, shovel snow, pull weeds, etc could be helpful to their educational experience.

[MindMover]

4. I should have used a different word than tax......the idea comes from the financial transaction tax

idea, and I understand your concern about it being regressive......we do not need to further burden low income

my point is that the cost should come from the retailers pocket, not the consumers.....

when they spend so much money advertising there product to make it look like we cannot live without it and then take away the freedom of the person that decides to take it without paying for it when that person lives in a time of high crimes and treason looks like fascism....

your idea of community service has already been incorporated into the social services programs.....