What to do if your toddler’s actions lead to shoplifting charges

Legally Reviewed by Shazam Kianpour on August 31, 2026

Imagine you are shopping with your toddler when they take an item without your knowledge. Employees confront you and accuse you of shoplifting as you leave the store. They find the item during a search. You explain your innocence, but the store insists on pressing charges. What should you do next, and could you personally end up facing a criminal record over something your two or three year old did?

In most cases, a very young child cannot form the intent that Colorado’s theft statute requires, so a criminal shoplifting charge against a toddler makes little legal sense on its own. What often surprises parents is that criminal liability and civil liability are not the same question, and Colorado law creates a distinct civil path that lets a store recover the value of shoplifted merchandise directly from a parent. We built this guide to walk through both sides of that reality, from what to do the moment a store stops you to how Colorado’s parental responsibility statutes work and when a defense attorney should get involved.

Stay Calm and Gather Information

First, remain calm. Store situations escalate quickly when a parent panics, and a calm, cooperative demeanor generally works in your favor with both loss-prevention staff and any officer who responds. Gather the facts while they are fresh: identify exactly what your child took, note the item’s price, ask for a copy of any incident report the store generates, and write down the names of the employees involved along with the approximate time of the encounter. In many cases involving a very young child, the store will agree to drop the matter entirely if you offer to pay for the item on the spot. If the store agrees to this kind of resolution, request a receipt or written confirmation that the matter is closed, since that document can matter later if a civil demand letter arrives anyway. However, if store personnel remain adamant about pressing charges, or if a letter demanding payment shows up after the fact, you need to look beyond simple restitution and understand the legal framework at play.

Criminal Charges Versus Parental Civil Liability in Colorado

Colorado’s theft statute requires that a person knowingly obtain, retain, or exercise control over another’s property without authorization. A toddler generally cannot form that mental state, and prosecutors rarely pursue a criminal shoplifting charge against a child too young to understand what taking an item means, or against a parent who had no knowledge the item left the store. That does not mean the incident simply disappears. Colorado law separates criminal responsibility from civil responsibility, and a store, or a party acting on the store’s behalf, can pursue a parent civilly even when no criminal charge against anyone is realistic. This distinction matters because the letters and calls a store or a collection firm sends after a shoplifting incident often use language that sounds criminal, referencing prosecution or charges, when what is actually being threatened is a civil claim for money. Understanding which track you are actually facing, criminal or civil, changes how you should respond and who you may need to consult.

Colorado’s Parental Civil Responsibility Laws for a Child’s Shoplifting

Colorado has two related statutes that let a store, or another party, recover money from a parent because of a minor’s actions, and it is easy to confuse the two.

• C.R.S. § 13-21-107 lets a party recover damages up to a capped amount, commonly cited around $3,500, from the parents of a minor who willfully or maliciously damages or destroys property, or who knowingly causes bodily injury to someone.
• C.R.S. § 13-21-107.5, Colorado’s civil theft statute for minors, holds a custodial parent liable for the actual value of merchandise a child under eighteen shoplifted, plus an additional statutory penalty of at least one hundred dollars but not more than two hundred fifty dollars, and this liability is not subject to the cap that applies under the general statute.

Neither statute requires a criminal theft conviction as a condition of the civil claim, so a store can pursue payment from a parent even in a case, like a toddler taking an item without anyone’s knowledge, where a criminal charge was never realistic to begin with. For a toddler taking a low-value item, this rarely translates into meaningful financial exposure beyond the item’s price and the modest statutory penalty, but the distinction becomes more important as children get older and the value of what they took increases, since the shoplifting-specific statute’s lack of a cap means a parent’s exposure can track the value of the merchandise rather than stopping at a fixed ceiling.

How Store Loss Prevention and Civil Demand Letters Typically Work

Most retail chains handle a suspected shoplifting incident through a fairly standard sequence. Loss-prevention staff or a manager stops the person leaving the store, recovers the item, and documents the encounter, sometimes with photographs or video. At that point, the store generally has three separate options: accept restitution and close the matter internally, refer the incident to local police for a possible criminal charge, or send the matter to its own legal department or a third-party firm that issues a civil demand letter under Colorado’s parental responsibility statutes. These paths are not mutually exclusive. A store can decline to call the police and still send a demand letter weeks later, or it can do both. A civil demand letter typically cites the statutory penalty range, asks for payment of the item’s value plus that penalty, and warns of a civil lawsuit if the parent does not respond. Because these letters can look and read like a criminal summons, many parents pay an inflated amount out of fear rather than confirming what the letter is actually asking for and whether the underlying facts support it.

Exercise Your Rights

You have the right to remain silent and to legal representation, both for yourself and, in the rare case a young child is formally questioned, for your child as well. After consulting a lawyer, you can decide what statements, if any, to provide to store personnel or law enforcement. You should also ask to see any evidence against you, such as surveillance footage, before agreeing to whatever version of events the store’s staff wrote down.

If your child is old enough to be formally referred to law enforcement rather than simply released to you, Colorado generally routes matters involving minors through the juvenile system rather than adult criminal court, and the process, terminology, and possible outcomes differ substantially from what an adult would face. A toddler is almost never old enough for this to become relevant, but if your child is older and a formal referral occurs, ask specifically whether the matter is being handled as a juvenile referral, a diversion program, or something else, since each path carries different implications for your child’s record and your own civil exposure.

Cooperate With Authorities

While you should exercise your right to remain silent about the substance of the incident, you should still cooperate with law enforcement by providing identification and other basic, non-incriminating information officers are entitled to request. Refusing to identify yourself or becoming confrontational with an officer who responds to a loss-prevention call rarely helps your position and can turn a misunderstanding into a more serious encounter. Cooperation on these basic points, combined with silence on the substantive facts until you have spoken with an attorney, can sometimes lead to more favorable outcomes, such as an officer declining to refer the matter for charges at all once the child’s age and the circumstances are clear.

Address the Incident

Explain the situation to the authorities, emphasizing that your toddler took the item without your knowledge and that you had no opportunity to prevent or stop the act. Most reasonable officers and prosecutors will recognize that this was not an intentional act of theft under Colorado law, since the statute requires that a person knowingly obtain, retain, or exercise control over someone else’s property without authorization. A child too young to understand ownership or permission cannot meet that standard, and neither can a parent who was unaware the item left the store with the child.

This is also a good moment to understand why wrongful shoplifting accusations happen in the first place. Store cameras and staff sometimes misread an innocent moment, and stores mistakenly accuse shoppers of theft more often than most people realize, which is part of why documenting your own version of events matters just as much as anything the store wrote down.

Consider Seeking Legal Advice

Seeking advice from a defense lawyer is valuable for any parent facing a shoplifting accusation connected to a toddler, even when no criminal charge against you personally seems likely. A lawyer can review the store’s documentation, help you evaluate whether a civil demand letter is legally sound, and advise you on whether responding, negotiating, or contesting the demand makes sense given the specific facts. This is also where the criminal and civil sides of the situation connect, since the same underlying incident can produce a civil demand under Colorado’s parental responsibility statutes even after any criminal question has been resolved or was never pursued in the first place.

Our Denver criminal defense team regularly fields these situations and can help you sort out which parts of a demand letter or police contact are accurate, which are overstated, and what your realistic options are before you send a store any money or a written response.

Follow Up on Legal Proceedings

Stay informed about any legal proceedings that do move forward, and meet every court date and paperwork requirement exactly as instructed. Missing a deadline or a hearing can create consequences that have nothing to do with the original incident and everything to do with the missed step itself, so treat every notice from a court or a collection firm as something that needs a response, even if that response is simply a call to your attorney.

It can feel overwhelming to face a shoplifting accusation because your toddler took something without your knowledge, especially once a civil demand letter or a parental responsibility statute enters the conversation. With guidance from our theft and economic crimes defense team, you can address both the practical demand from the store and any underlying legal exposure directly, rather than guessing at what a letter or an officer’s comment actually means for your family. If you have received a demand letter, a citation, or a call from a store’s loss-prevention department, reach out to our team to talk through your specific situation before you respond.

Frequently Asked Questions About Toddler Shoplifting Charges in Colorado

Written by

Shazam Kianpour

Denver Criminal Defense Attorney & Founder, Shazam Kianpour & Associates, P.C. — Over 10,000 criminal and traffic cases handled across Colorado.