SF Police Charge Shoplifter Under New California Law

<p>On December 4&comma; 2024&comma; Marcel Criner was arrested for a petty theft incident that occurred at a retail store on the 1300-block of Castro St&period;  Generally&comma; singular petty theft incidents result in a cite and release for suspects&comma; however&comma; officers were notified about four other petty theft incidents by the same suspect at the same store&period; Due to the aggregate total of all five theft incidents totaling &dollar;1&comma;294&period;73&comma; Criner was booked on the felony theft charge of 487&lpar;e&rpar; PC&comma; among other charges&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On December 6&comma; 2024&comma; Criner was issued a stay-away order from that retail store and released from jail on his own recognizance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On December 18&comma; 2024&comma; Proposition 36 came into effect after being passed by voters&period; Proposition 36 included the creation of CA Penal Code 666&period;1&period; This statute enables the charging of petty theft incidents as a wobbler &lpar;misdemeanor or felony&rpar; if the suspect has two or more prior theft convictions&period; Criner had numerous prior theft convictions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In March of 2025&comma; investigators from the SFPD Defend Against Retail Theft &lpar;DART&rpar; Organized Retail Crime &lpar;ORC&rpar; Task Force began investigating Criner for five petty theft incidents that occurred at the same store and after he was issued a stay-away order for that location&period; Investigators also discovered that Criner was a suspect in three petty thefts from the same store in November of 2024&period; The total loss for the new incidents totaled nearly &dollar;3&comma;000&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On March 25&comma; 2025&comma; members of the SFPD DART ORC Task Force arrested 57-year-old male&comma; Marcel Criner&comma; at 850 Bryant St&period; He was transported and booked into San Francisco County Jail on the following charges&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>5 x Petty Theft w&sol; Prior &&num;8211&semi; 666&period;1&lpar;a&rpar;&lpar;1&rpar; PC&sol;F<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>5 x Committing a Felony While on OR &&num;8211&semi; 12022&period;1&lpar;b&rpar; PC&sol;F<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>5 x Court Order Violation &&num;8211&semi; 166&lpar;a&rpar;&lpar;4&rpar; PC&sol;M<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>3 x Petty Theft &&num;8211&semi; 490&period;2&lpar;a&rpar; PC&sol;M<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>2 x Organized Retail Theft &&num;8211&semi; 490&period;4&lpar;a&rpar;&lpar;1&rpar; PC&sol;M<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Our officers will continue to use every tool available to them&comma; including new statutes from Prop 36 passed by voters&comma; to hold suspects accountable&period; I’d like to thank the investigators who worked tirelessly on these cases and continue to curb organized retail theft in our city&comma;” said Chief Bill Scott&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I’d also like to thank our District Attorney&comma; who filed charges in this case&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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