By justina colmena ~biz in legal malpractice — 09 Jan 2026

No, I’m not a shoplifter. Yes, I would like a receipt for the goods I purchased and paid for, please. Thank you very much.

I merely object to the extreme and exaggerated “shopkeeper’s privilege” and other rampant “self-help” bar violations which have been proliferating in courts across the nation lately.

Store managers are ultimately responsible for hiring and paying their own security details privately. Private security guards are not entitled to make arrests or detain suspects, either, unless, of course, a suspect is caught in the act of grabbing goods and running off without paying for them. They can only contact police with evidence to justify warrants to arrest thieves. Shopkeepers are “in the business” of retailing professionally, and they are not entitled to any favoritism from local police departments, and they are certainly not entitled to pay or bribe police officers to work security shifts in their stores.

Shopkeepers Privilege Law and Legal Definition | USLegal, Inc.

Shopkeepers Privilege refers to a common law privilege given to shopkeepers whereby they can detain a suspected shoplifter on store property for a reasonable period of time. This can be done only if

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Training store managers to write reports

…at stores stocked with goods shipped in interstate commerce is itself a federal felony under any of several statutes on obstruction of justice. The testimony of store managers who have been “woodshedded” or “coached” by police officers may be impeached in court. Shopkeepers are ultimately responsible for retaining and paying private attorneys in good standing with the bar to advise them on legal methods of discouraging theft and collecting evidence to prosecute thieves and shoplifters. Cops are not attorneys and they do not owe store managers any legal or police procedural advice, nor is it ethical of them to offer such dubious favors.

Consolidating repeated thefts into felony charges

…is also an act perjury and obstruction of justice if the repeated thefts are in fact separate incidents and not part of an organized retail crime conspiracy which would also involve “fencing” the stolen goods and profiting from the thefts wholesale. Otherwise prosecutors are limited by the bar to the dollar value of each theft and the number of counts of it to charge in court.