Criminal Defense
In short
Petit larceny under Penal Law 155.25 is a class A misdemeanor carrying up to 364 days in jail and a fine of up to 1,000 dollars. It covers theft of property worth 1,000 dollars or less; above that the charge becomes grand larceny in the fourth degree. You can be convicted without leaving the store, and retail thefts committed under a common scheme can be aggregated into a felony even across different stores.
Penal Law 155.25 is one sentence long: “A person is guilty of petit larceny when he steals property.” It is a class A misdemeanor. To steal is to wrongfully take, obtain or withhold property from an owner with intent to deprive the owner of it or to appropriate it.
Notice what the section does not contain: any dollar figure. Petit larceny is the residual theft charge. It covers a theft of any value unless the value, the nature of the property or the manner of the taking pushes it up into grand larceny.
Grand larceny in the fourth degree under Penal Law 155.30(1) requires that the value exceed one thousand dollars. So a theft of exactly $1,000 is still petit larceny, and $1,000.01 is a class E felony.
But value is only one of twelve routes into fourth degree grand larceny. Regardless of what it is worth, the charge is a felony if the property is:
| Property | Threshold |
|---|---|
| A credit card or debit card | Any value |
| Taken from the person of another | Any value |
| A firearm, rifle or shotgun | Any value |
| Obtained by extortion | Any value |
| A public record or secret scientific material | Any value |
| A motor vehicle other than a motorcycle | Over $100 |
The credit card rule catches people constantly. A wallet containing four dollars and a debit card is a felony, not a misdemeanor. See the guide on grand larceny for the higher degrees.
Value means market value at the time and place of the crime, or replacement cost if that cannot be established. Where value cannot satisfactorily be determined at all, the statute deems it less than two hundred fifty dollars.
No. New York has no offense called shoplifting. Retail theft is charged as petit larceny, and very often alongside criminal possession of stolen property in the fifth degree under Penal Law 165.40, which is also a class A misdemeanor.
Both counts on one complaint is normal rather than a sign of an aggressive prosecution. The larceny is the taking; the possession count is knowingly holding the goods with intent to benefit yourself or impede the owner’s recovery. It is not a defense to the possession charge that you were the one who stole the property.
Yes. This is the single most common misconception in retail theft cases, and the Court of Appeals settled it in People v Olivo, 52 NY2d 309 (1981). The question was whether a person can be convicted of larceny for shoplifting while still inside the store, and the Court held that a conviction may be sustained in certain situations even though the shoplifter was caught before leaving.
The reasoning matters as much as the result. A self-service store invites customers to handle merchandise, so picking something up is not a taking. What converts it is exercising dominion and control wholly inconsistent with the store’s continued rights, together with the intent to deprive. Concealing goods in a bag, under clothing or in a stroller is powerful evidence of both.
“In certain situations” is doing real work in that sentence. Concealment is not an element and it is not automatically conclusive. Where the conduct is equivocal, the case may be an attempt, or nothing at all.
| Exposure | Maximum |
|---|---|
| Jail | 364 days, a definite sentence |
| Fine | $1,000 |
| Alternative fine | Up to double your gain from the offense, in place of the ordinary fine |
The 364 day figure is deliberate rather than a rounding quirk. New York reduced the class A misdemeanor maximum from one year precisely so that a misdemeanor conviction would not trigger federal immigration consequences keyed to a possible sentence of one year or more.
Most first-time retail theft cases do not end in jail. Probation, a conditional discharge, community service and restitution are the ordinary range.
Within limits. General Business Law 218 is not a police power. It is a defense that a store can raise if you later sue it for false arrest, false imprisonment, defamation, assault or trespass.
To rely on it the store must show the detention was in a reasonable manner, for no more than a reasonable time, by someone with reasonable grounds to believe you were committing or attempting larceny on the premises. The statute says knowledge that a person has concealed unpurchased merchandise counts as reasonable grounds, and defines reasonable time as the time needed to let you make or refuse a statement and to check employees and records about ownership.
If the detention was excessive, prolonged, or based on nothing, the defense fails. Store security also cannot take your fingerprints at the scene unless fingerprinting is otherwise authorized by law and done by police.
Almost everyone arrested for retail theft in New York receives one, usually from a law firm working for the retailer, and almost everyone misreads it. It is a civil claim under General Obligations Law 11-105, entirely separate from the criminal case.
| Component | Cap |
|---|---|
| Retail price of merchandise not recovered in merchantable condition | $1,500 |
| Statutory penalty, the greater of five times retail price or $75 | $500 |
| Maximum total | $2,000 |
Three points people get wrong:
One protection is genuinely useful: anything you say or any evidence generated in an attempt to settle the civil claim is inadmissible in other proceedings about the same larceny. Speak to a lawyer before responding anyway, because a letter agreeing to pay can read like an admission of the facts.
Yes, and this changed recently. Penal Law 155.30(12), added in 2024, makes it fourth degree grand larceny where the property is retail goods stolen pursuant to a common scheme or plan, or a single ongoing intent, and the aggregate value exceeds one thousand dollars. Penal Law 155.35(3) does the same at the third degree over three thousand dollars, and the ladder continues above that.
The crucial words are at the end: value may be aggregated regardless of whether the goods were stolen from the same owner. Four separate $300 thefts from four different stores can be charged as a single felony if the People can prove one scheme.
What the provision does not do is convert unrelated thefts into a felony by arithmetic. The common scheme or single ongoing intent has to be proved. Repetition alone is not a plan.
A scuffle with a loss prevention officer at the door is the situation that turns a misdemeanor case into a felony case most often.
Theft offenses are generally treated as crimes involving moral turpitude under federal immigration law, which can affect admissibility and, in some circumstances, deportability. The 364 day maximum helps with rules keyed to a possible one year sentence, but it does not make a theft conviction safe, and a second such conviction raises separate problems. Anyone who is not a citizen should get the disposition reviewed before pleading to anything.
On licensing, Correction Law article 23-A limits what agencies and employers may do. A conviction is generally not a lawful basis to deny a license or job unless there is a direct relationship to the work or an unreasonable risk, and the agency has to weigh time elapsed, age, seriousness and rehabilitation. That said, a theft conviction is directly relevant to any role involving money or fiduciary duties, so the protection is thinner in exactly the jobs where it matters most.
Often, yes, especially on a first arrest. Petit larceny is eligible for an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, which is not a conviction and results in automatic dismissal and sealing. A negotiated plea to a violation such as disorderly conduct is also common, though that is a conviction for a non-criminal offense rather than no conviction at all.
If a conviction does result, petit larceny is not on any exclusion list. It is eligible for automatic sealing under the Clean Slate Act three years after sentencing, and for discretionary sealing under CPL 160.59 after ten. See sealing a criminal record.
Retail theft arrests in Nassau County are heard at Nassau County District Court, 99 Main Street in Hempstead, unless the store is in Glen Cove or Long Beach, which have their own city courts. Felony larceny charges move to Nassau County Court at 262 Old Country Road in Mineola, and in some matters to Supreme Court, Nassau County.
Most Nassau shoplifting cases begin with a desk appearance ticket rather than an overnight in custody, which means there is usually time to have a lawyer involved before the first appearance. That time is worth using: the retail chains along Old Country Road and in the county’s malls generate a steady volume of these cases, and the disposition available on a first arrest is frequently better than what the same case gets later.
Related: grand larceny, desk appearance tickets, adjournments in contemplation of dismissal, and criminal defense in Nassau County.
This guide is general information about New York law, not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Statutes and penalties change, and how the law applies depends on facts no webpage knows. Check the linked primary source, and speak with a lawyer about your own case.
Speak with a lawyer
The consultation is free and confidential, and the phone is answered around the clock.
(516) 294-1133
Toner Law Firm
100 Garden City Plaza, Suite 400
Garden City, New York 11530
Attorney Advertising. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and contacting the firm does not create an attorney-client relationship. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
