Q: What punishments can a store give you/lew to calling the police.What would you be willing to do to avoid the police.THIS was the second time you was cought in a store.and the police was called.
A: In lieu of calling the police the victim (store) of shoplifting can hold you responsible for the value of the property stolen, as well as any damage that may have been done while stealing it (running into things or resisting employees), or if the thing stolen was an item being used by the store, and by it's absence, the store lost income, etc. These are all "civil" in nature, so if the thief refused to reimburse the victim store at the front end of an agreement, the store may sue and take the person to court to get a judgment against them, hence starting the ball rolling for a number of sneaky means of getting restitution from the thief. :) But you described the matter as something where the police were not called. So the thief is still in the civil arena, not the criminal courts. But the store "could" still call and make a report to the police and most likely the statute of limitations will be one year, unless the thief took something of a value pretty darn $$big. Good luck. Do the right thing and always try to negotiate a friendly settlement that is fair to the other side as well.