People v. Shannon
Court of Appeal of California
78 Cal.Rptr.2d 177 (1998)
Jeffrey Shannon (defendant) hid clothes taken from a department store rack in a bag, walked to a cashier, and obtained a cash refund; security guards arrested him before he left the store. Because of a prior record, the State (plaintiff) charged him with felony petty theft under California's Three Strikes law. Shannon's fiancée testified the clothes were actually hers and she had asked him to return them, but the jury convicted, and he was sentenced to 25 years. Shannon appealed, arguing no completed theft occurred because he never left with the clothes and never meant to permanently deprive the store of them.
Whether taking store property and presenting it for a cash refund, with intent to obtain its monetary value, constitutes a completed theft even though the property is returned to the owner.