I was caught for shoplifting from a major store in New York. I live in the uk.. I had to sign a trespassing notice and gave my relative's address.. will they receive any letter or fine on my name.. They told me that they are not going to send any letter and that they just needed it for the record.. I am so worried that my relatives will receive letter on my behalf which will be so embarrassing.. please help

Yes, a letter will most probably come addressed to you at the address you gave the store. Someone posed recently that he was stopped for shoplifting and received a notice to appear in Court two months later.

Have you checked into how this will affect your status in the US as a non-citizen?

They told me that they are not going to send any letter and that they just needed it for the record..Hello vacation:

If they weren't going to DO anything about it, they wouldn't need your name. Do I think they lied to you? I DO.

Judy is right. But, the letter will be addressed to you. Nonetheless, it'll have the COURT as the return address, so the cats going to be out of the bag.

excon

I don't live in the US and was on a vacation. There is no way that they would not send any letter to that address as I told them that I don't live at that address? Is there anything that can be done to stop them from sending the notice. Why did they tell me that they would not send anything to the address.The police was not called and I did not have any ID with me.. But they did not make a big fuss about that too..

Hello again, v:

Look. I don't know what motivates people to shoplift, and I don't know what motivates people to become store detectives. You didn't have a lot of integrity in your dealings with the store, so you shouldn't be surprised that they didn't either. You certainly shouldn't be indignant about it.

Why didn't you give them your REAL address in England? We're you trying to pull one over on them again??

Oh, what a tangled web we weave...

excon

Not at all.. in fact now I think I should have given the wrong US address.. I asked them if I could give them the UK address and they did not want it.. Also, I was 7 months pregnant and was really sorry about what happened and of course I have learnt my lesson..

If you now think you should have given the WRONG US address you have learned nothing. In fact, I'm not sure you learned your lesson, based on that remark.

However - the only thing you can do is wait and see what happens. Of course, if there is an arrest Immigration will be notified. I think INS thinks we have enough US shoplifters in the US and will take some action.

But, again, these vary from place to place and person to person.