Lawyers Defending Shoplifting Charges in Union Township
Union Township is centrally located within Union County, New Jersey and spliced by several major roadways and highways. The short corridor of Route 22 that runs through Union Township is stacked with store after store and several strip malls such as Union Plaza Shopping Center, West Branch Commons, and Route 22 Retail Center which are home to various stores. These shopping centers can sometimes produce several dozen shoplifting charges during a given year. Most petty shoplifting arrests that take place within Union Township will make there way to Union Township Municipal Court to be prosecuted. Union has a very busy municipal court so the case can be scheduled in the morning or at night depending on the day. For more serious shoplifting charges such as indictable crimes involving several thousand in stolen goods, the charges will be sent to Union County Superior Court in Elizabeth to be reviewed and handled by the County Prosecutor’s Office. Our New Jersey shoplifting attorneys frequently appear in both courts to defend clients so we are very familiar with the procedures as well as the judges and prosecutors who will be handling your case.
Shoplifting Arrests in Union, New Jersey
As mentioned above, Union is home to several large department stores and nationwide stores along Route 22 and some of its other major roadways. For purposes of this topic, we have listed some of the larger stores that typically produce the majority of the shoplifting arrests in Union Township each year. These “shoplifting hot-spot” stores include Costco Wholesale, Walmart, Best Buy, DICK’S Sporting Goods, Babies “R” Us, Target, Party City, Petco, Home Depot, HomeGoods, Carter’s, PetSmart, GameStop, ShopRite, Modell’s Sporting Goods, Marshalls, Lowe’s, P.C. Richard & Son, Whole Foods. There are also several convenience stores sprinkled throughout the town including QuickChek, 7-Eleven, CVS, Walgreens and ALDI which contribute to the occasional shoplifting arrest in smaller numbers. Most of these nationwide stores take the time to train their staff on how to spot a shoplifting incident and what to do if they catch someone. In fact, many of these locations hire part-time or even full-time security guards and loss prevention officers whose only job is to find and stop would-be shoplifters. However, the average shopper may never even know they are being watched because most times it is done through a discreet surveillance camera system or by a plain clothed security guard pretending to just be another shopper. In fact, most of our clients did not even know they were being watched until they are physically detained by store personnel. Once detained, you will normally be escorted into a backroom where the store security will tell you what they witnessed while they search your bag or belongings to find and recover the stolen goods. Once confirmed, they will call the Union Township police to arrest you for shoplifting and process you on the charges. At this point you will typically be released after processing and given a day and time to report back to court. This may be a good time to consult with attorneys and figure out how you may defend your case. At Proetta & Oliver, our Union shoplifting lawyers are frequently able to help our clients avoid a criminal conviction by either challenging the evidence resulting in a dismissal or a downgrade, or securing our client’s admittance into the conditional dismissal program. To learn more about our services, feel free to call our office at (732) 856-9959 and speak with one of our lawyers during a free consultation.