Offenses Relating to Property - 9.08

This Chapter shall be construed in such manner as to promote maximum fulfillment of its general purposes, namely, to define offenses, describing adequately the act which constitutes each offense relating to public health, to give fair warning to all persons concerning the nature of the conduct prohibited, and to forbid the commission of offenses.

For the purposes of this Chapter the following terms, phrases, and their derivations shall have the meaning given herein:

1. "Agreement with such public establishment" means any written or verbal agreement as to the price to be charged for, and the acceptance of, food, beverage, service, or accommodations where the price to be charged therefore is printed on a menu or schedule of rates shown to or made available by a public establishment to the patron and includes the acceptance of such food, beverage, service, or accommodations for which a reasonable charge is made.
2. "Coin machine" means a box, turnstile, vending machine, or other mechanical or electronic device or receptacle designed to receive a coin or bill of a certain denomination or token made for the purpose and, in return for the insertion of deposit thereof, to offer, to provide, to assist in providing, or to permit the acquisition of some property or some public or private service.
3. "Public establishment" means any establishment selling or offering for sale prepared food or beverages to the public generally, or any establishment leasing or renting overnight sleeping accommodations to the public generally, including, but not exclusively, restaurants, cafes, dining rooms, lunch counters, coffee shops, boarding houses, hotels, motor hotels, and rooming houses, unless the rental thereof is on a month-to-month basis or a longer period of time.
4. "Slug" means any object or article which, by virtue of its size, shape, or any other quality, is capable of being inserted, deposited, or otherwise used in a coin machine as an improper but effective for a genuine coin, bill ,or token and of thereby enabling a person to obtain without valid consideration the property or service sold throughout the machine.

1. A person commits the offence of petty theft when he knowingly obtains or exercises control over anything with a value of less than five hundred dollars (0.00) belonging to another without authorization, or by threat or deception or, if applicable, without paying the purchase price therefore or, and
   1.  Knowingly uses, conceals or abandons the thing of value in such a manner as to deprive the other person permanently of its use or benefit; or
   2. Intends to deprive the other person permanently of the use or benefit of the thing of value.
2. If any person willfully conceals un-purchased goods, wares, or merchandise owned or held by and offered or displayed for sale by any store or mercantile establishment, whether the concealment be on his own person or otherwise, and whether on or off the premises of said store or mercantile establishment, such concealment constitutes prima facia evidence that the person intended to obtain control over a thing of value and intended to deprive the owner permanently of its use or benefit without paying the purchase price therefore.
3. For purposes of this Section, when theft occurs from a store, evidence of the retail value of the thing involved shall be prima facie evidence of the value of the thing involved. Evidence offered to prove retail value may include, but shall not be limited to, affixed labels and tags, signs, shelf tags, and notices. Evidence of the value of the thing involved may be established through the sale price of other similar property and may include, but shall not be limited to, testimony regarding affixed tags and labels, signs, shelf tags, and notices tending to indicate the price of the thing involved. Hearsay evidence shall not be excluded in determining the value of the thing involved.
4. If any person conceals upon his person or otherwise carries away any un-purchased goods, wares, or merchandise held or owned by any store or mercantile establishment, the merchant or any employee thereof or any peace officer acting in good faith and upon probable cause based upon reasonable grounds thereof or may detain and question such persons, in a reasonable manner for the purpose of ascertaining whether the person is guilty of theft. Such questioning of a person by a merchant, merchant’s employee, or peace officer does not render the merchant, merchant’s employee or peace officer civilly or criminally liable for slander, false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, or unlawful detention.

1. No person shall intentionally, knowingly, negligently, or recklessly injure, deface, destroy or remove real property or improvements thereto or moveable or personal property belonging to the Town.
2. No person shall intentionally, knowingly, negligently, or recklessly tamper with, injure, deface, destroy, or remove any sign, notice, marker, fire alarm box, fire plug, topographical survey monument or any other personal property owned, erected or placed within the Town by the Town or any other governmental agency or district.

It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly damage, or remove real property or improvements thereto, or personal property of one or more other persons where, in the course of a single criminal episode, the aggregate damage to the real or personal property is less than five hundred dollars (0.00).

A person commits the crime of criminal trespass if he intentionally, knowingly, or willfully:

1. Unlawfully enters or remains in or upon premises which are enclosed in a manner designed to exclude intruders, or are fenced, or if he unlawfully enters or remains in or upon the premises of a hotel, motel, bar, lounge, restaurant, condominium, or apartment building;
2. Unlawfully enters or remains in or upon any other premises or a motor vehicle;
3. A person “unlawfully enters or remains” in or upon premises when he is not licensed, invited, or otherwise privileged to do so. A person who, regardless of his intent, enters or remains in or upon premises which are at the time open to the public does so with license and privilege unless he defies a lawful order not to enter or remain, personally communicated to him by the owner of the premises or some other authorized person. A license or privilege to enter or remain in a building which is only partly open to the public is not a license or privilege to enter or remain in that part of the building which is not open to the public. A person who enters or remains upon unimproved and apparently unused land which is neither fenced nor otherwise enclosed in a manner designed to exclude intruders does so with license and privilege unless notice against trespass is personally communicated to him by the owner of the land or some other authorized person or unless notice forbidding entry is given by posting with signs at intervals of not more than four hundred forty (440) yards, or, if there is a readily identifiable entrance to the land, by posting with signs at such entrance to the private land or the forbidden part of the land. In the case of a designated access road not otherwise posted, said notice shall be posted at the entrance to private land and shall be substantially as follows: “Entering Private Property - Remain on Roads. As used in this section, “premises” means real property, buildings, and other improvements thereon.

It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly place, post, erect or paint any handbill, placard, circular, notice, advertising device or matter of any kind upon any public building, structure, or upon any tree, post, pole or other improvement located within a Town right-of-way, park or open space without the prior written permission of the town administrator. B. It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly place, post, erect or paint any handbill, placard, circular notice, advertising device or matter of any kind upon any private residence, fence, tree, store, building, or other private premises without permission from the owner, tenant, or occupant of the same.

It shall be unlawful for any person to deface or cause, aid in, or permit the defacing of public or private property without the consent of the owner, by painting, drawing, or writing, by use of paint, spray paint or ink, or by any other method.

1. As used in this Section unless the context otherwise requires:
   1. “Check” means a written, unconditional order to pay a sum certain in money, drawn on a bank, payable on demand, and signed by the drawer. “Check”, for the purposes of this section only, also includes a negotiable order of withdrawal and a share draft.
   2. “Drawee” means a bank upon which a check is drawn or a bank, savings and loan association, industrial bank, or credit union on which a negotiable order of withdrawal or a share draft is drawn.
   3. “Drawer” means a person, either real or fictitious, whose name appears on a check as the primary obligor, whether the actual signature be that of himself or of a person authorized to draw the check on himself.
   4. “Insufficient funds” means a drawer has insufficient funds with the drawee to pay a check when the drawer has no checking account, negotiable order of withdrawal account, or share draft account with the drawee or has funds in such an account with the drawee in an amount less than the amount of the check plus the amount of all other checks outstanding at the time of issuance; and a check dishonored for “no account” shall also be deemed to be dishonored for “insufficient funds”.
   5. “Issue” A person issues a check when he makes, draws, delivers, or passes it or causes it to be made, drawn, delivered, or passed.
   6. “Negotiable order of withdrawal” and “share draft” mean negotiable or transferable instruments drawn on a negotiable order of withdrawal account or a share draft account, as the case may be, for the purpose of making payments to third persons or otherwise.
   7. “Negotiable order of withdrawal account” means an account in a bank, savings and loan association, or industrial bank, and “share draft account” means an account in a credit union, on which payment of interest or dividends may be made on a deposit with respect to which the bank, savings and loan association, or industrial bank, or the credit union, as the case may be, may require the depositor to give notice of an intended withdrawal not less than thirty (30) days before the withdrawal is made, even though in practice such notice is not required and the depositor is allowed to make withdrawal by negotiable order of withdrawal or share draft.
2. Any person commits the offense of fraud by check if:
   1. Knowing he has insufficient funds with the drawee, he issues a check for the payment of services, wages, salary, commissions, labor, rent, money property, or other thing of value;
   2. He opens a checking account, negotiable order of withdrawal account, or share draft account using false identification or an assumed name; or
   3. The fraudulent check was drawn on an account which did not exist or which has been closed for a period of thirty (30) days or more prior to the issuance of said check.
3. Any person having acquired rights with respect to a check which is not paid because the drawer has insufficient funds shall have standing to file a complaint under this Section, whether or not he is the payee, holder, or bearer of the check.
4. If deferred prosecution or probation is ordered, the court as a condition thereof may require the defendant to make restitution on all checks issued by the defendant which are unpaid as of the date of commencement of the period of probation additional to other terms and conditions appropriate for the treatment or rehabilitation of the defendant.
5. A bank, a savings and loan association, an industrial bank, or a credit union shall not be civilly or criminally liable for releasing information relating to the drawer’s account to a police officer or prosecuting attorney investigating or prosecuting a charge under this section.
6. This section does not relieve the prosecution from the necessity of establishing the required culpable mental state. However, for purposes of this section, the issuer’s knowledge of insufficient funds is presumed, except in the case of a postdated check or order, if:
   1. He has no account upon which the check or order drawn with the bank or other drawee at the time he issues the check or order; or
   2. He has insufficient funds upon deposit with the bank or other drawee to pay the check or order, on presentation within thirty (30) days after issue.
7. In the case of any amount billed by or due the Town and a drawer has insufficient funds as defined herein, a person may avoid prosecution under this Section by making payment satisfactory to the Town within a certain time established by the Town manager, such payment to include a penalty of twenty () dollars to any such amount billed by or due the Town. 

A person commits the offence of unlawfully using slugs if with intent to defraud the vendor of property or a service sold by means of a coin machine, he knowingly inserts, deposits, or uses a slug in such machine or causes the machine to be operated by any other unauthorized means, or he makes, possesses or disposes of a slug or slugs with intent to enable a person to use it or them fraudulently in a coin machine.

1. A person commits the offense of tampering if:
   1. He tampers with property of another with intent to cause injury, inconvenience, or annoyance to that person or to another or if he knowingly makes an unauthorized connection with property of a utility;
   2. In any manner knowingly destroys, breaks, removes, or attempts to destroy, break, remove or otherwise tamper with any equipment associated with oil or gas gathering operations;
   3. Without the consent of the owner or operator knowingly alters, obstructs, interrupts, or interferes with or attempts to alter, obstruct, interrupt, or interfere with the action of any equipment used or associated with oil or gas gathering operations;
   4. Connects any pipe, tube, stopcock, wire, cord, socket, motor, or other instrument or contrivance with any main, service pipe, or other medium conducting or supplying gas, water, or electricity to any building without the knowledge or consent of the person supplying such gas, water, or electricity; or
   5. In any manner alters, obstructs, or interferes with the action of any meter provided for the measuring or registering the quantity of gas, water, or electricity passing through said meter without the knowledge and consent of the person owning said meter.
2. Nothing in this Section shall be construed to apply to any licensed electrical or plumbing contractor while performing usual and ordinary services in accordance with recognized customs and standards.

Any person who, with intent to defraud, procures food or accommodations from any public establishment, without making payment therefore in accordance with his or her agreement with such public establishment, is guilty of a misdemeanor if the total amount due is five hundred dollars (0) or less.

A person commits theft of rental property if he obtains the temporary use of personal property of another, which is available only for hire, by means of threat or deception, or knowing that such use is without the consent of the person providing the personal property; or having lawfully obtained possession for temporary use of the personal property of another which is available only for hire knowingly fails to reveal the whereabouts of or to return said property to the owner thereof or his representative or to the person from whom he has received it within seventy-two hours after the time he agreed to return it. Theft of rental property is a class three (3) misdemeanor where the value of the property involved is less than one hundred (100) dollars. Theft of rental property is a class five (5) misdemeanor where the value of the property is one hundred dollars (0) or more and is less than five hundred dollars 0).

A person who knowingly or recklessly starts or maintains a fire or causes an explosion on his own property or that of another and by so doing places any building or occupied structure of another in danger of damage commits the offense of arson.