I think so, but as usual, IANAL.pt145ss wrote:Great...that is exactly what i was looking for. Now, it says person, not merchant, so does that mean if I have reasonable belief that someone stole my garden gnome I can detain them for investigative purposes? Also, does that mean I can use force for such detention? Meaning the suspect does not wish to be detained can I use force to detain them?
We also have chapter 9 of the penal code, which allows us to use force to recover stolen property; but in that case you have to quite certain the person has stolen property.
Can they? It is physically possible for them to do so, and in this case the store won in the end. However, I'll bet they paid a lot in legal fees, unless they had in-house counsel. Appeals are a specialty, and they probably had to farm that work out.Now back to the one case law that was posted, They did not find any merchandise on her person; If at that point she said, arrest me or I am leaving can they (the store employees) use force to detain her?
- Jim