Property crimes: theft, burglary, robbery and fraud

Property crime fills more of a patrol officer's shift than any other kind of offense. In Port Ardent, theft and property calls made up about 5,900 of the 54,300 calls for service in 2025, more than domestic and assault calls combined, and alarms and suspicious person calls added thousands more that often turned out to be property matters. Ms. Liu tells the class that property files look simple and are not. A shoplifting case can turn on whether the person had left the store, a burglary on whether anyone was likely to be home, a robbery on whether a push counted as violence, and a fraud on what the victim believed when the money changed hands. The grade of the offense, and sometimes whether there is an offense at all, depends on these details. This lesson works through the main property offenses in the order officers meet them: theft and possession of stolen property, burglary and trespass, robbery, fraud and criminal damaging.

Theft

Ohio consolidates the old common law offenses of larceny, embezzlement and false pretenses into a single theft offense in R.C. 2913.02, following the Model Penal Code approach in section 223.1. No person, with purpose to deprive the owner of property or services, shall knowingly obtain or exert control over the property or services without the consent of the owner, beyond the scope of the owner's consent, by deception, by threat or by intimidation. The offense therefore covers the shoplifter, the employee who keeps the day's deposit, the customer who pays with a forged check and the person who obtains money by threats. Deprive is defined in R.C. 2913.01 to include withholding property permanently or for a period that appropriates a substantial portion of its value, and disposing of it so that recovery is unlikely. The grade depends mostly on value: theft of less than 1,000 dollars is petty theft, a misdemeanor of the first degree; 1,000 to 7,500 dollars is a felony of the fifth degree; 7,500 to 150,000 dollars is a felony of the fourth degree; and the degree rises further at 150,000, 750,000 and 1.5 million dollars. Theft of certain items, such as a firearm, a motor vehicle, or property from an elderly person or a person with a disability, is graded higher regardless of value.

Because grading turns on value, officers must establish it with evidence: a receipt, a price tag, a store's loss prevention report, or an owner's statement about the replacement or market value at the time of the theft. Under R.C. 2913.61, value is generally fair market value, and when a series of thefts is committed by the same offender in the same course of conduct, the values may be added together to set the degree. Priya Sandhu, who spent years tracing fraud losses at a bank, says the valuation is the number defense counsel attacks first, so it is worth getting right.

Possession of stolen property is the offense that catches the people who buy, sell or hold the proceeds. Receiving stolen property, under R.C. 2913.51, is committed by a person who receives, retains or disposes of property of another knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that it has been obtained through a theft offense. It is graded by value like theft. Ohio juries may infer guilty knowledge from unexplained possession of recently stolen property, and from circumstances such as buying goods at a fraction of their value from a stranger in a parking lot.

Shoplifting and the shopkeeper's privilege

Shoplifting is the theft officers handle most often, and it raises a special question: what can store staff do before police arrive? Ohio's shopkeeper's privilege, in R.C. 2935.041, lets a merchant or employee who has probable cause to believe that items offered for sale were unlawfully taken detain the person in a reasonable manner for a reasonable length of time, within or near the store, to recover the property, to obtain the person's name and to notify police. A merchant who stays within the privilege is protected from civil liability for false arrest. Ohio also allows any person to make a citizen's arrest for a felony under R.C. 2935.04, but private persons have no general power to arrest for misdemeanors. Officers arriving at a store should take statements from the staff who saw the offense, obtain the video before it is overwritten, check how the person was detained and whether any force was used, and remember that the store's report is not a substitute for their own assessment of the evidence.

Burglary, breaking and entering and trespass

Ohio grades unlawful entries by whether a person was present or likely to be present. Burglary, under R.C. 2911.12, is trespassing by force, stealth or deception in an occupied structure, or a separately secured or separately occupied portion of it, when another person other than an accomplice is present or likely to be present, with purpose to commit any criminal offense; when the occupied structure is a permanent or temporary habitation, burglary is a felony of the second degree. Aggravated burglary, under R.C. 2911.11, adds that the offender inflicts, attempts or threatens physical harm, or has a deadly weapon or dangerous ordnance, and is a felony of the first degree. Breaking and entering, under R.C. 2911.13, covers trespassing by force, stealth or deception in an unoccupied structure with purpose to commit a theft offense or any felony, and is a felony of the fifth degree. Criminal trespass, under R.C. 2911.21, covers knowingly entering or remaining on the land or premises of another without privilege. An occupied structure is defined broadly in R.C. 2909.01 to include any house or building that is maintained as a dwelling even if no one is home at the time.

For officers, the investigation of a burglary starts at the point of entry. A careful officer photographs pry marks, broken glass and footwear impressions before anyone touches them, asks the owner what is missing and what was disturbed, canvasses neighbors for doorbell and security camera video, and records serial numbers so that property can be flagged in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and pawn databases. Fingerprints and DNA are often found on items the offender handled inside, such as a dresser drawer or a drink taken from the fridge, and the scene should be protected for an identification officer where the service has one. Marco DiSanto asks why so few burglaries are solved, and Professor Desjardins says the clearance rate is low everywhere, which is exactly why the first officer's work at the scene matters so much.

Robbery

Robbery in Ohio is defined in R.C. 2911.02 as committing or attempting a theft offense, or fleeing immediately after one, while having a deadly weapon on or about the person or under one's control; while inflicting, attempting to inflict or threatening to inflict physical harm; or while using or threatening the immediate use of force against another. Robbery with a deadly weapon or with physical harm is a felony of the second degree; robbery by force alone is a felony of the third degree. Aggravated robbery, under R.C. 2911.01, is a felony of the first degree and covers committing a theft offense while having a deadly weapon and displaying, brandishing, indicating possession of or using it, having dangerous ordnance, or inflicting or attempting to inflict serious physical harm. Firearm specifications under R.C. 2941.141 to 2941.145 add mandatory prison terms of one, three or more years when a firearm is used. A theft in a store that turns violent when staff try to stop the thief can become a robbery, because the violence was used to overcome resistance to the stealing. Officers should therefore record exactly when force was used and why.

Fraud and identity crime

Ohio has no single fraud offense; instead, deception is a way of committing theft under R.C. 2913.02(A)(3), and the Revised Code adds specific offenses such as passing bad checks (R.C. 2913.11), misuse of credit cards (R.C. 2913.21), forgery (R.C. 2913.31), telecommunications fraud (R.C. 2913.05), and identity fraud (R.C. 2913.49), which covers using another person's personal identifying information to hold oneself out as that person or to commit fraud. Federal law adds mail fraud and wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. 1341 and 1343 and aggravated identity theft under 18 U.S.C. 1028A, which carries a mandatory two-year consecutive sentence. Large frauds are usually investigated jointly with federal agencies such as the FBI, the Secret Service and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Priya Sandhu explains that most fraud reported to local police now comes through phones and computers: romance scams, fake investment sites, emergency scams aimed at grandparents, and invoice fraud aimed at businesses. Victims are often embarrassed, and the money has often been moved overseas within hours, so the first officer's job is to take a detailed report quickly, preserve the messages and transaction records, help the victim contact the bank, and report the scam to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) so it can be linked with other complaints.

Criminal damaging, vandalism and arson

Criminal damaging, under R.C. 2909.06, is knowingly causing physical harm to property of another without consent, or causing a substantial risk of physical harm to it, and is usually a misdemeanor of the second degree. Vandalism, under R.C. 2909.05, is a felony of the fifth degree or higher when the property is an occupied structure, or is necessary to the owner's business, or is government property, and the value of the harm is at least 1,000 dollars. Arson, under R.C. 2909.03, covers knowingly causing physical harm to property by fire or explosion; aggravated arson, under R.C. 2909.02, covers creating a substantial risk of serious physical harm to a person or causing physical harm to an occupied structure, and is a felony of the first or second degree. Ohio's ethnic intimidation statute, R.C. 2927.12, raises the degree of criminal damaging and other offenses committed by reason of the victim's race, color, religion or national origin.

The grading problem is the same for every property offense: the officer must find the facts that set the level. Linh Tran writes a function that applies the grading rules to a few files Ms. Liu brought in, and the class checks each answer against the statute.

# Grade property files under the Ohio Revised Code (simplified)
def theft_degree(value):
    for limit, degree in [(1000, "M1 petty theft"), (7500, "F5"), (150000, "F4"),
                          (750000, "F3"), (1500000, "F2")]:
        if value < limit:
            return degree
    return "F1"
def grade(f):
    if f["armed_and_displayed"]:
        return "aggravated robbery, R.C. 2911.01 (F1)"
    if f["force_in_theft"]:
        return "robbery, R.C. 2911.02 (F3; F2 with harm or a deadly weapon)"
    if f["trespass_by_force_stealth_deception"]:
        if f["occupied_structure"] and f["person_likely_present"]:
            return "burglary, R.C. 2911.12 (F2 for a habitation)"
        return "breaking and entering, R.C. 2911.13 (F5)"
    if f["damage_only"]:
        return "criminal damaging, R.C. 2909.06 (M2)"
    if f["vehicle"]:
        return "grand theft of a motor vehicle, R.C. 2913.02 (F4)"
    how = "theft by deception" if f["deceit"] else "theft"
    return f"{how}, R.C. 2913.02 ({theft_degree(f['value'])})"
base = dict(armed_and_displayed=False, force_in_theft=False, trespass_by_force_stealth_deception=False,
            occupied_structure=False, person_likely_present=False, damage_only=False,
            vehicle=False, deceit=False, value=0)
files = {
    "hid two phones in a bag, stopped at door": {"value": 1800},
    "pushed clerk who grabbed the bag": {"force_in_theft": True, "value": 1800},
    "pried rear door of a closed shop": {"trespass_by_force_stealth_deception": True, "value": 300},
    "entered home through unlocked window": {"trespass_by_force_stealth_deception": True,
                                             "occupied_structure": True, "person_likely_present": True},
    "fake invoice paid by a business": {"deceit": True, "value": 18400},
    "spray-painted bus shelter": {"damage_only": True, "value": 650},
    "took keys from hook, drove car away": {"vehicle": True, "value": 22000},
}
for name, facts in files.items():
    print(f"{name:40s} -> {grade({**base, **facts})}")

hid two phones in a bag, stopped at door -> theft, R.C. 2913.02 (F5)
pushed clerk who grabbed the bag         -> robbery, R.C. 2911.02 (F3; F2 with harm or a deadly weapon)
pried rear door of a closed shop         -> breaking and entering, R.C. 2911.13 (F5)
entered home through unlocked window     -> burglary, R.C. 2911.12 (F2 for a habitation)
fake invoice paid by a business          -> theft by deception, R.C. 2913.02 (F4)
spray-painted bus shelter                -> criminal damaging, R.C. 2909.06 (M2)
took keys from hook, drove car away      -> grand theft of a motor vehicle, R.C. 2913.02 (F4)

The same seven files land in different places as soon as one fact changes. The phones taken at 1,800 dollars are a fifth-degree felony theft; add a push against the clerk and the same event is a third-degree felony robbery. The home entered through a window is burglary even if no one was home, because a habitation is a structure where a person is likely to be present. This is why officers write down the facts precisely and do not reach for the charge first.