Is Taking a Milk Crate a Crime in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts wrote a statute for milk cases. M.G.L. c. 266, sec. 144 covers carrying away or converting to your own use a plastic or wire milk case, or a plastic or wire container for milk products, that has been indelibly stamped with the name of a milk dealer or an association of milk dealers, without the owner’s permission. The fine is not less than $10 and not more than $100.

The stamped name is the whole hinge

Section 144 is not a general rule about crates. The text requires that the case be indelibly stamped with a dealer’s name or the name of an association of milk dealers. That marking is the element that brings a crate inside the section, and a crate with no such marking is outside it.

This is why the video says it only counts if a dairy’s name is stamped. Without the stamp, section 144 is not the provision in play.

A small penalty, stated plainly

The range is $10 to $100. That is what the Legislature attached to this conduct, and it is worth stating without inflation: this is a fine-only provision with a modest ceiling, not a serious criminal exposure on its own terms.

A neighboring provision

Chapter 266 also contains section 128, which addresses defacing a dealer’s name or mark on a milk can. It is a separate section with separate elements. Section 144 is about taking the case; section 128 is about obscuring the mark.

What this page is not

Whether some other provision of chapter 266 could apply to a real set of facts is not something a general page can answer, and asserting a specific additional charge would be guesswork. Section 144 is the statute the video cites, and the description above is what its text says.