vandalism

[Mitzi]

When my son was 14, I had to go pick him up a the police station because he let off a stink bomb in a department store. They considered filing criminal mischief charges against him but decided against it. I guess, when they saw IIIIII was gonna kill him, that would be enough.
How many of you would consider letting a stink bomb off (it was very small) criminal mischief? I noticed that some of the officers had trouble keeping a straight face over it. David never saw the smiles but I did. I just kept visualizing all these clothes in the store ruined but it was never that bad, thank goodness. There was no damage at all.
But, they did put the fear of God in my son. I put more in!

[mac90]

Kids do stupid things. I have gotten to the point that I don't even speed anymore, but who can say when someone else will do something completely stupid? Sounds like he learned his lesson.

[Niteshift]

Would I consider it criminal mischief? Yeah, the law would pretty much apply to this as criminal mischief if it cost them money. If it didn't, then no.

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Niteshift-
Perseverate In Pugna

[FLLawdog]

And money can be expressed in more ways than just loss of merchandise. It can include cleaning, lost profit, etc....

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FLLawdog
"Never try to teach a pig to sing...it wastes your time and it annoys the pig."

[Mitzi]

No damage was done so maybe that's why they didn't charge him. What my son doesn't know is I went to the store first. I heard him ask if he could call his "Mom" and they told him to "Shut up right now" not very nicely. It truly was what David needed. So, I told the manager I was going home and let this play out as a lesson to him. It was hard, but I just sat there waiting for the police to call and they did.
David tried to act cocky about it but I heard him talking to a friend about how awful it was to ride in the police car. He and his friend (who shoplifted) tried to hide their heads but the cop made them sit up.
All in all, I think it taught him a lesson.

[Niteshift]

"how awful it was to ride in the police car."

If you knew what people do in that back seat, you'd burn his clothes

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Niteshift-
Perseverate In Pugna

[Evnings]

In Texas it could also be filed as Disorderly Conduct-Class C offense.

We had an officer do that once in the squad room. It really twisted one of the lieutenants that was here at the time. He went as far as to generate a complaint number.

[Delta_V]

In KY, he wouldn't be charged with criminal mischief because we have laws that specifically deal with this type of incident. "Criminal use of noxious substances" carries the same penalty as 3rd degree criminal mischief. The same is true of "Criminal posession of noxious substances." So under KY state law, having a stink bomb is illegal as long as it can be proved that the subject has the intent to use it.