The bill creates the crime of retail theft with special circumstances
if a person commits theft from a store with one of the following special circumstances:
•
The person is, at the time of the theft, in possession of an item, article, implement, or device used or designed to overcome security systems, including but not limited to
lined bags or tag removers, under circumstances indicating an intent to use or employ the item, article, implement, or device for such purposes; or
•
To facilitate the theft, the person utilizes an organized effort of multiple persons to remove items from the store with the intent to resell the items.
Retail theft with special circumstances is a class 5 felony.
The bill requires secondhand dealers who purchase gift cards to
keep a record of those purchases. Failure to record the purchases in an electronic database is a class 2 misdemeanor for a first offense and a class 6 felony for a second or subsequent offense.
The bill adds a gift card to the definition of a valuable article,
which triggers certain record-keeping requirements.
