Jameson Stone Law defends theft and property charges across Central Pennsylvania, and Ethan Stone leads the criminal work. Most of what determines the outcome here is arithmetic rather than argument. A figure, a threshold, and a prior record decide whether you are facing a summary offense or a felony.
Grading
Pennsylvania grades theft almost entirely on the amount involved. Under fifty dollars is a third-degree misdemeanor. Fifty to two hundred is second-degree. Two hundred to two thousand is first-degree. Above two thousand it becomes a third-degree felony, and it climbs from there as the figure rises. Firearms and vehicles are felonies whatever they were worth.
Which makes the valuation a live question rather than a settled one. The number in the complaint generally came from the complainant, at retail price, and nobody neutral has checked it. Actual value, condition, and what was really recovered all bear on it, and moving a figure across one threshold changes the entire grading of the charge. That is frequently the most productive work available in a theft case.
Retail Theft
Shoplifting runs on its own ladder rather than the general one. A first offense under one hundred and fifty dollars is a summary offense. A second under that figure is a second-degree misdemeanor. A first or second at one hundred and fifty or more is a first-degree misdemeanor. A third offense becomes a felony whatever the merchandise was worth, and so does any offense over one thousand dollars.
The part that catches people is what counts as a prior. It is not limited to convictions. Accepting ARD or a similar diversionary program on an earlier retail theft still counts when a later one is graded. That does not mean diversion is the wrong choice, because it usually is not. It means the decision should be made knowing what it does to the grading of anything that follows.
Burglary
Burglary in Pennsylvania is entering a building with the intent to commit a crime inside it. The crime does not have to be theft, and it does not have to happen. Entering with the intention completes the offense, which is why people are charged with burglary in cases where nothing was ever removed and nobody was ever harmed.
The grading turns on the building and on whether anyone was in it. An unoccupied structure that is not somebody’s home sits at the lower grade. Almost everything else is a first-degree felony carrying up to twenty years. There are defenses written into the statute where the building was abandoned, open to the public at the time, or where you were licensed to be there. And intent, being a state of mind rather than an act, is very often the element most worth contesting.
What We Handle
Shoplifting charges from summary offense up to a felony, where the prior record drives the grading.
The general theft charge, graded on value, and a felony automatically where vehicles or firearms feature.
Charges resting on what you knew or should have suspected about where the item came from.
Entry charges where the intent inside is contested, and the lesser trespass alternative that sits beneath.
Our Process
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The figure in the complaint came from the complainant, so moving it below a threshold can change the grading entirely.
What counts as a prior offense, including diversion, because that is what moves a retail theft charge into felony range.
A reduction in grading is usually worth more than an argument about the facts, and paying restitution frequently helps that.
Two things surprise people about these charges. How small an amount can produce a criminal record, and how readily a charge escalates on a record rather than on what happened. Both are questions about grading rather than about guilt, and grading is where there is usually something to work with.
Because Pennsylvania grades theft from the bottom up rather than setting a floor below which nothing is charged. Under fifty dollars is still a third-degree misdemeanor, and fifty to two hundred is second-degree. Retail theft is handled differently again, and a genuine first offense under one hundred and fifty dollars is a summary offense, which is the lowest tier there is. That matters, because a summary offense can be expunged after five arrest-free years while a misdemeanor conviction cannot be expunged at all. So the grading is worth arguing about even at small amounts, and often more so.
Yes, and this is the most common misunderstanding about the offense. Burglary is complete on entry with intent to commit a crime inside. Whether anything was taken, whether the intended crime happened, and whether anyone was hurt are all separate questions. What the Commonwealth has to prove is what you intended when you went in, and intent is almost always established by inference from circumstances rather than by direct evidence. Where the inference is thin, so is the charge. There are also statutory defenses if the place was abandoned, open to the public, or you had permission to be there.
The offense requires more than possession. The Commonwealth has to establish that you knew the item was stolen or believed it probably was, and that is a genuine hurdle rather than a formality. Buying something at a reasonable price, in an ordinary way, from someone who appeared entitled to sell it is not the same as receiving stolen property. What the case usually turns on is the price, the circumstances of the sale, and whether anything about it should have put a reasonable person on notice. Keeping whatever record you have of the purchase is worth doing straight away.
The value on the paperwork decides the grading, and it arrived there from the complainant rather than from anyone impartial. Where a prior offense is also in play, whether it counts is a separate question worth asking. Ethan Stone leads the firm’s criminal work, and the first conversation costs nothing.