Establishing the criminal offense of organized retail theft, providing penalties, and including effective date provisions

7C; and the person or another member of the retail theft enterprise sells or intends to sell the stolen retail merchandise, advertises or displays any item of the stolen retail merchandise for sale, or returns any item of the stolen retail merchandise to a retailer for anything of value. The bill provides that a person who commits organized retail theft is guilty of the following: a class “C” felony if the value of the property stolen exceeds $5,000; a class “D” felony if either the value of the property stolen is more than $1,000 but not more than $5,000, or the value of the property is more than $500 but not more than $1,000 and the person has been convicted at least twice before for a violation of the bill or one of the other qualifying offenses, the person received a felony or an aggravated misdemeanor sentence for the offense, and at least two of the prior convictions occurred in the previous years; an aggravated misdemeanor if either the value of the property stolen is more than $500 but not more than $1,000, or the value of the property is $500 or less and the person commits the offense within years of a previous conviction under the bill or one of the other qualifying offenses and the person received a felony or aggravated misdemeanor sentence for the offense; or a serious misdemeanor if the value of the property stolen is $500 or less. The bill provides that the value of the retail merchandise received by the defendant in violation of the bill within any six-month period may be aggregated and the defendant charged accordingly. The bill provides that if a violation of the bill creates a reasonably foreseeable risk of bodily harm to another, the penalties described in the bill are enhanced as follows: if the penalty is a serious misdemeanor or an aggravated misdemeanor, the offense shall be classified and punished as an offense one degree higher than the underlying offense; if the penalty is a felony, the offense shall be classified and punished as an offense one degree higher than the underlying offense. The bill takes effect upon enactment.