Is Taking a Shopping Cart Off the Lot Shoplifting in Massachusetts?

The Massachusetts shoplifting statute does not leave shopping carts to interpretation. M.G.L. c. 266, sec. 30A names them directly, in a clause reaching a person who intentionally removes a cart from a store’s premises without the merchant’s consent given at the time of removal, with the intention of permanently depriving the merchant of possession, use or benefit of it.

Where the cart clause sits

Section 30A is best known for the conduct people expect to find in a shoplifting law: concealing merchandise, altering or switching price tags, transferring goods from one container to another, and understating the value of an item. The cart clause is the fifth in that list, and it carries the same penalty structure as the rest.

That placement is what makes the video’s framing accurate. Taking a cart is not analogized to shoplifting. It is written into the shoplifting section.

Intent to permanently deprive is a required element

The clause is not satisfied by moving a cart. It requires that the person intended to permanently deprive the merchant of possession, use or benefit of the cart. A cart abandoned at the edge of the lot, or wheeled to a car and left, does not describe that intent on its face.

Whether the element is met in any real situation depends on what actually happened, which is the sort of question that gets resolved on the facts rather than from the statute text.

How the penalty is calculated

Section 30A ties penalties to value, not to which clause was violated. Under $250, a first offense is a fine of up to $250, a second offense is a fine between $100 and $500, and a third or subsequent offense is a fine of up to $500 or jail for up to two years. At $250 or more, the range is a fine of up to $1,000, or house of correction for up to two and a half years, or both.

Because the tier turns on value, the same conduct can land in different places depending on what the item is worth. The section also contains a warrantless arrest provision, allowing an officer to arrest on probable cause, with a merchant’s statement capable of supplying it.