Hello everybody. First of all I wanna say I’m terribly ashamed and sorry for what I’ve done some time ago. I shoplifted and I’m not proud. I’m crying right now and feeling so terrible, I’ve never done a stupid thing THIS bad before. I was having a really bad time coping with stress and depression and other health issues for the past 2 months, I was on anxiety pills and other medications. But it’s not an excuse to shoplift I know, I am deeply sorry. I ended up being on the surveillance camera and as I also consumed some things while stealing they got to me pretty easy. First I got a call from the store, as I am a member of the store they had my number on my membership card, I used it when I bought things. Even though my chinese is bad I KNEW they were talking about the incident but I was panicked and couldn’t communicate well, the call was over. After that my life turned into hell. I couldn’t sleep, eat, think clearly, all I did was worry about it for 3 days straight and then I heard from police. They asked me to come over. The police was somehow so nice and reassuring, said this kind of things happen all the time, it’s a very small thing, you won’t end up in jail or getting deported. Then he helped me to call to the store and settle with them. After a day, a meeting was arranged at the police office with the manager from the store. She was so mean to me, she was shouting at me, rolling her eyes nonstop and was rude to me. But I thought yes I deserve it because I did. She asked me what can I do to make it up to them so I said, first of all I wanna apologize for my actions and she rolled her eyes and the other policemen laughed. My face burned out of embarrassment and once again I deserved it. And I said, I can double the price of the items I stole. (It was 2500 so I offered 5000) She said unacceptable. For the third time I though I deserve it and I said I can give you 7500. She said ok. I can’t write in chinese but somehow she MADE me write the settlement contract in characters with the help of google translate, because it’s a store policy she says. The content was “I shoplifted goods worth of 2500 and I am willing to settle to pay 7500” That was it, I didn’t get to get any guarantee of them not sueing me after the payment. Police copied the contract, I paid, and before her departing I apologized again crying and asked is there gonna be any other problems after this? She said she doen’t know Taiwan’s law and regulations, not sure if I’ll get summoned to court, and told me that she’ll send me some kind of “letter” in the next 7 days and took off. I still don’t know what letter she was talking about. I am still crying, I am a criminal now, I have a criminal record and don’t even know if I’m going to court or not. I feel suicidal, I can’t have my family to know about it, am I safe that I paid the money? Or should I still to be worried about the court? Please help, I’m so miserable now.
Check this thread someone else had same situation.
Thank you so much for the reply.
But my situation doesn’t involve prosecution, i was only at the police office and I settled with the store there by paying them money.
All I wanna know is am I safe now? Will they summon me to the court later? Can you please publish my post? I am at very miserable position now. Thank you for understanding.
It sounds like they have settled out of court, so you should be OK. However, nobody here can state definitively that you will be safe. There’s little you can do but wait, so try not to stress too much.
Thank you for the reply. She said she will send me some kind of “letter” in the next 7 days and she said make sure I’ll receive it because it’s important. I didn’t even get to ask her about it and she took off on her scooter. Do you know what it might be?
I’ve no idea, I’m afraid. Hopefully it will be confirmation that she does not wish to continue with proceedings.
Okay, thanks again. As I am so ashamed of this problem, I haven’t told anyone about it and not planning to. Honestly I had no one to talk about it to, the only person who was helpful was that police guy, but I haven’t seen him again on that settlement day. So getting replies from you makes me feel better. I’ll stay updated if it’s okay.
You made a bad decision. Don’t beat yourself up over it. AFAIK there’s nothing you can do now but wait, so relax and hope for the best. No point making yourself more unwell worrying about something you cannot change.
@meia I don’t know if you are truly sorry about what you did or if it’s just panic what talks, but I guess that you have learned the lesson. Everybody makes stupid things anyway (I have stolen a couple of blank recording tapes myself, I think that’s about it in my whole life anyway xD).
Don’t worry, I don’t think they will prosecute you, not the shop anyway (because you already settled it with those 7,500, which IMO is very good for them). The police is aware of the situation and they could further this up, but I don’t think so, and even if they do it, I doubt they will take any major action over this anyway. This might be a problem in the future if they record it and you need some CLEAR criminal record though.
So, calm down, everything is alright, or almost.
Now, why did you do it?
Hello, thank you for the reply. Yes I am truly sorry and I’ll never do it again. I’ve never had a miserable time like this in my life before, this is like the worst lesson in my whole life. As I’ve told earlier it’s true that I have anxiety problems and depression and currently on medications and sleeping pills, it was just a sudden decision that looked like won’t be a trouble at that time and made me feel thrilled and all. I didn’t even need that item though. I know I sound like an idiot because maybe I am. The police said I got a criminal record in Taiwan but it will remain only in Taiwan he said, however he was nice enough to me and he wasn’t even serious about this at all saying it is a very small problem. Does this mean it’ll stay out of court? I am still so depressed about it.
Keep your fingers crossed you get the letter, that is going to be the settlement between you and the store owner and basically them saying they have been compensated to their satisfaction and will not pursue changes in court or use the video to ask for your prosecution. If you get that, as far as my understanding goes, that will be the end of the matter.
Ideally you would have wanted that letter at the time of paying the owner what they thought was fair compensation, even better would have been to have a lawyer to check the wording to make sure everything was kosher. Whatever she has said orally is not legally binding, so I’m sure you will have a nervous week, but there is nothing to do except hope the owner provides what they promised.
From the sound of it the owner knows the drill and knows the purpose of the letter and I get the feeling they will do what they said, you acted remorseful, apologized, paid the compensation.
Meia, you can hope but I’d start planning for the worst. The fact is that police here often say comforting but untrue things to people in order to get cases handled as quickly and as problem-free as possible. I’m not saying the worst will happen, but I’d be ready for it.
Again @meia it is VERY unlikely that anything will happen to you. However, for the peace of mind, you can check (if you can find it) a list of things you get get deported over. I do not think that a small shoplifting will be included, but who knows.
Calm down, relax, meet some friend, go to the movies, go to the mall, steal something have fun and if something else comes up, just accept it, but you should be alright.
PS: what were your plans here in Taiwan? what did you steal?
Good advice. Meia certainly should be aware of the worst next time s/he leaves the country and tries to reenter. There’s a possibility that could be a problem.
I study here and I am close to graduating now. I had classes during summer and trying to get through college as much as I can. I took a sunblock and a lotion.
I asked the police many times if it’s gonna be a problem for me to re enter Taiwan or extend my ARC, he said no it won’t. But you suggest that he might be lying… 
Am I right?
Expensive creams…
Yeah they were, from the other section than regular ones. The expensive derma brand section.
Be aware that anything that was said to you will count for nothing if a problem arises in the future. Prepare accordingly - perhaps not leaving the county until you graduate for example.
Ok if I don’t leave and want to extend my ARC, does it also count as re-entry?