(A) It shall be unlawful for any person or persons to remove any merchandise from a commercial business without paying for said merchandise and without the consent of the owners of said business.
(B) Any police officer or licensed security guard may arrest, without warrant, any person if there is probable cause for believing said person has committed larceny of merchandise held for sale in retail or wholesale establishments, when such arrest is made in a reasonable manner.
(C) Any merchant, an agent, or employee, who has reasonable grounds or probable cause to believe that a person has committed or is committing a wrongful taking of merchandise or money from a mercantile establishment, may detain such person in a reasonable manner for a reasonable length of time for all or any of the following purposes:
(1) Conducting an investigation, including reasonable interrogation of the detained person, as to whether there has been a wrongful taking of such merchandise or money;
(2) Informing the police or other law enforcement officials of the facts relevant to such detention;
(3) Performing a reasonable search of the detained person and said person’s belongings when it appears that the merchandise or money may otherwise be lost; and
(4) Recovering the merchandise or money believed to have been taken wrongfully; any such reasonable detention shall not constitute an unlawful arrest or detention, nor shall it render the merchant, an agent, or employee criminally or civilly liable to the person so detained.
(D) Any person concealing unpurchased merchandise of any mercantile establishment, either on the premises or outside the premises of such establishment, shall be presumed to have so concealed such merchandise with the intention of committing a wrongful taking of such merchandise within the meaning of this section, and such concealment or the finding of such unpurchased merchandise concealed upon the person or among the belongings of such person shall be conclusive evidence of reasonable grounds and probably cause for the detention in a reasonable manner and for a reasonable length of time, of such person by a merchant, an agent, or employee, and any such reasonable detention shall not be deemed to be unlawful, nor render such merchant, his or her agent, or employee criminally or civilly liable.
(Prior Code, Ch. 14, Art. 5, § 59) Penalty, see § 134.99