State v. Saylor

A K-Mart security guard observed Glenn Lee Saylor (defendant) moving items into a shopping cart, entering the hardware department, and returning with an empty cart; the guard then found a resealed cardboard toy-chest box, worth $13.97, that had been moved from the toy department, its lid recently reglued. Later that day, Saylor returned, placed that same box in his cart, and paid the $13.97 marked toy-chest price at checkout without the cashier suspecting anything unusual; police then opened the box and found chainsaws, tools, cigarettes, and record albums worth over $500. Saylor was convicted of theft by deception under a Kansas statute requiring an owner to have been actually deceived, and the court of appeals reversed, finding only attempted theft by deception since K-Mart had not truly been deceived about the box's contents until the sale was already complete; the State appealed.