What is retail theft and what are the penalties?

Retail theft under § 812.015 reaches taking or carrying away merchandise, and also altering or removing price tags, switching containers, and removing a shopping cart, where the intent is to deprive the merchant of the full retail value.

That breadth catches conduct people don't think of as theft. Swapping a tag, moving an item into a different box, or under-ringing at self-checkout all fall within it.

The aggregation rules matter most. The Legislature amended the statute in 2022 and again in 2024 to expand the window over which separate retail theft incidents can be grouped together to reach felony thresholds. Multiple small incidents that would each be a misdemeanor can be combined into a felony charge.

Note that there's no misdemeanor retail theft offense in the statute — smaller merchant thefts are charged under the general theft statute instead.

What's contested: intent, which the State infers from conduct; identification, often from imperfect surveillance; and valuation, since retail price and actual value aren't always the same measure.