Washington Theft Charges by Degree: RCW 9A.56 Limits

In Washington, theft of property or services worth more than $5,000 is theft in the first degree, a class B felony; more than $750 up to $5,000 is theft in the second degree, a class C felony; and $750 or less is theft in the third degree, a gross misdemeanor. Several categories skip the dollar test entirely — property taken from a person, an access device, a firearm, a car.

Those lines come from RCW 9A.56.030, RCW 9A.56.040 and RCW 9A.56.050. The $750 and $5,000 figures date from a 2009 amendment that applies to crimes committed on or after September 1, 2009; before that the lines sat at $250 and $1,500.

This article is general information, not legal advice, and creates no attorney-client relationship. For an overview of how a charge moves through the local courts, see our guide to criminal charges and the Clark County court process, and our theft defense practice page.

Table of Contents

• ➤ What Counts as Theft in Washington
• ➤ The Three Degrees at a Glance
• ➤ Categories That Ignore the Dollar Amount
• ➤ How Value Is Measured and Added Together
• ➤ Retail Theft With Special Circumstances
• ➤ Organized Retail Theft and Theft With Intent to Resell
• ➤ Maximum Penalties by Offense Class
• ➤ Which Clark County Court Hears the Case
• ➤ Shoplifting Demand Letters Under RCW 4.24.230
• ➤ Consequences That Outlast the Sentence
• ➤ Frequently Asked Questions
• ➤ Talk to a BFQ Law Washington Attorney

What Counts as Theft in Washington

Washington folds what used to be separate crimes — larceny, embezzlement, false pretenses, keeping lost property — into one definition. Under RCW 9A.56.020, theft means any of three things, each done with intent to deprive the owner of the property or services:

1. Wrongfully obtaining or exerting unauthorized control over property or services of another — including an employee or agent who holds property lawfully and then diverts it.
2. Obtaining control by color or aid of deception. The deception does not have to be the only reason the owner handed the property over; it only has to have operated to bring that about.
3. Appropriating lost or misdelivered property that you know was lost, mislaid, or delivered to you by mistake.

“Services” is defined broadly in RCW 9A.56.010, including labor, transportation, hotel and restaurant services, equipment rental and utilities. The statute also writes in a defense: property taken “openly and avowedly under a claim of title made in good faith, even though the claim be untenable.” A secret taking, or a claim invented after the fact, does not qualify.

The Three Degrees at a Glance

The degree is set by value in most cases, but each degree also lists categories that are charged at that level regardless of value. The table summarizes the current statutes as published by the Legislature.

Degree	Value test	Other categories at this level	Class
First degree (RCW 9A.56.030)	Exceeds $5,000	Property of any value taken from the person of another (other than a firearm or motor vehicle); a search and rescue dog while on duty; commercial or nonferrous metal property where the damage exceeds $5,000; certain firefighter or EMS equipment	Class B felony
Second degree (RCW 9A.56.040)	Exceeds $750, up to $5,000	An access device; a public record, writing or instrument kept by a public office; metal property where the damage exceeds $750 up to $5,000	Class C felony
Third degree (RCW 9A.56.050)	$750 or less	Ten or more merchandise pallets or beverage crates, or a combination of ten or more	Gross misdemeanor

The wording at the edges matters: property worth exactly $750 is third degree, and exactly $5,000 is second degree, because the higher degree requires value that exceeds the line.

Categories That Ignore the Dollar Amount

Taken from the person. Snatching a phone from someone’s hand or lifting a wallet from a pocket is theft in the first degree even if the item is worth twenty dollars. If force or a threat of force is used, the charge may instead be robbery.

Access devices. An “access device” is any card, code, account number or other means of account access that can be used to obtain money, goods or services or start a funds transfer. Stealing a debit card, credit card or account number is at least second-degree theft — a felony — whether or not it was used; if it is taken from the person, it is first degree.

First-responder property and metal. Theft of an on-duty search and rescue dog is first degree. A 2025 amendment added critical firefighter or EMS equipment taken from a fire station, fire department vehicle, or EMS facility or vehicle, where the loss significantly hindered or delayed an emergency response or the property exceeds $1,000. Metal property theft is graded by the cost of the damage to the owner’s property, not scrap value.

Firearms, vehicles and vulnerable adults are separate crimes. Theft of a firearm is its own class B felony under RCW 9A.56.300, regardless of value, and each firearm is a separate offense. Theft of a motor vehicle is a class B felony under RCW 9A.56.065. Theft from a vulnerable adult, under RCW 9A.56.400, uses the same $750 and $5,000 lines but is charged as a distinct offense where the defendant knew or should have known the victim was a vulnerable adult.

How Value Is Measured and Added Together

Because the degree usually turns on value, the definition of value in RCW 9A.56.010(21) is often where a theft case is won or lost on the charge level.

Market value, then and there. Value means “the market value of the property or services at the time and in the approximate area of the criminal act.” That is not necessarily replacement cost, the purchase price, or the number on a store’s loss report. A check is valued at the amount due on it; a ticket at its stated price. Property whose value cannot be ascertained is deemed worth no more than $250.

Aggregation. A series of transactions that would each be third-degree theft can be aggregated in one count when they are part of a criminal episode or a common scheme or plan, and the total sets the degree. “Criminal episode” is defined narrowly: thefts by the same person from one or more mercantile establishments on three or more occasions within five days. “Common scheme or plan” is the usual route for an employee who skims over months.

Retail Theft With Special Circumstances

RCW 9A.56.360 raises the stakes for shoplifting that involves one of three “special circumstances”:

• Leaving the store through a designated emergency exit to facilitate the theft;
• Possessing an item or device designed to overcome security systems, or used under circumstances showing intent to do so — the statute names lined bags and tag removers; or
• Committing theft at three or more separate mercantile establishments within 180 days.

Underlying theft	Becomes	Class
Theft in the first degree	Retail theft with special circumstances, first degree	Class B felony
Theft in the second degree	Retail theft with special circumstances, second degree	Class C felony
Theft in the third degree	Retail theft with special circumstances, third degree	Class C felony

The bottom row surprises people: a shoplifting case worth well under $750 is ordinarily a gross misdemeanor, but the same theft with a foil-lined bag or out a fire exit is a felony. Thefts from stores over 180 days can also be aggregated into one count.

Organized Retail Theft and Theft With Intent to Resell

RCW 9A.56.350 targets group and repeat retail theft. A person commits organized retail theft by doing any of the following with property worth at least $750:

• Stealing from a store with an accomplice;
• Possessing stolen property from a store with an accomplice;
• Stealing a cumulative $750 or more from one or more stores within up to 180 days; or
• Stealing property worth a cumulative $750 or more from a store with no fewer than six accomplices, and making or sending at least one electronic communication, while planning or committing the theft, that seeks participation in it.

Organized retail theft is first degree, a class B felony, at $5,000 or more, and second degree, a class C felony, at $750 up to $5,000. Note the wording differs from the general statutes: “at least $750” rather than “exceeds.”

A separate statute, RCW 9A.56.340, covers store theft with intent to resell, with lower thresholds: at least $250 is second degree (class C felony) and $1,500 or more is first degree (class B felony).

Maximum Penalties by Offense Class

The classes above translate into statutory maximums under RCW 9A.20.021:

Class	Theft offenses in this class	Maximum confinement	Maximum fine
Class B felony	Theft 1; retail theft with special circumstances 1; organized retail theft 1; theft with intent to resell 1; theft of a firearm; theft of a motor vehicle; theft from a vulnerable adult 1	10 years	$20,000
Class C felony	Theft 2; retail theft with special circumstances 2 and 3; organized retail theft 2; theft with intent to resell 2; theft from a vulnerable adult 2	5 years	$10,000
Gross misdemeanor	Theft 3	364 days in county jail	$5,000

These are ceilings, not predictions. A felony sentence is set under the Sentencing Reform Act from a standard range based on the offense and prior record, and for a person with no history that range is typically well below the maximum. Restitution is separate from the fine: in felony cases RCW 9.94A.753 requires it for property loss unless extraordinary circumstances exist, and it cannot exceed double the offender’s gain or the victim’s loss.

Which Clark County Court Hears the Case

For a theft that happens in Vancouver, Camas, Battle Ground, Ridgefield or elsewhere in Clark County, the degree decides the courthouse as well as the penalty. Under RCW 3.66.060, district court shares jurisdiction over misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors with superior court, so an adult’s third-degree theft charge is usually heard in Clark County District Court, or in the Camas-Washougal Municipal Court when one of those cities files it. District court cannot try felonies, so theft in the first or second degree, retail theft with special circumstances and organized retail theft are filed in Clark County Superior Court.

Clark County sits on the Oregon border, and an Oregon resident cited at a Vancouver store is charged under Washington law, in a Washington court, whatever the rules are across the river.

Shoplifting Demand Letters Under RCW 4.24.230

Weeks after a shoplifting stop, many people receive a letter from a retailer or its law firm demanding several hundred dollars. That letter is a civil claim, separate from any criminal case, and it rests on RCW 4.24.230.

Who is liable	Penalty for retail value	Additional penalty	Also recoverable
Adult or emancipated minor	Retail value of the goods, up to $2,850, in addition to actual damages	$100 to $650	Reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs
Parent or guardian with custody of an unemancipated minor	Retail value of the goods, up to $1,425	$100 to $650	Reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs

Several points in the statute matter when deciding how to respond:

• No conviction is required. A criminal conviction is not a condition of the civil action. The store can pursue the claim whether the charge is dismissed, reduced or never filed.
• Paying does not end the criminal case. The demand must carry, in type at least as large as the demand itself, the notice: “The payment of any penalty demanded of you does not prevent criminal prosecution under a related criminal provision.” A letter without that notice does not comply with the statute.
• A letter is not a judgment. The statute sets what a store could seek in court; a demand letter is an offer to settle that claim. Claims may be assigned, which is why a collection firm often sends it.

If a criminal charge is open, get advice before you write to the store; what you write can be used as evidence.

Consequences That Outlast the Sentence

Credibility as a witness. Washington Evidence Rule 609 lets a party attack a witness’s credibility with a prior conviction. Crimes involving dishonesty or false statement come in “regardless of the punishment” under ER 609(a)(2), and Washington courts treat theft as a crime of dishonesty. Even a gross misdemeanor theft conviction can be raised if you later testify in a civil, family or criminal case, generally for up to ten years from conviction or release from confinement.

Firearm rights. Under RCW 9.41.040, a conviction for any felony not separately listed makes later possession of a firearm unlawful possession in the second degree. A felony theft conviction therefore carries a firearm prohibition; a gross misdemeanor third-degree theft does not trigger that rule on its own. Our guide to restoring firearm rights explains the petition process.

Immigration and the record. Anyone who is not a U.S. citizen should get immigration advice before any plea. Many Washington convictions can eventually be vacated once waiting periods and other conditions are met. See our Vancouver guide to vacating a conviction, and for how felony classes fit together, our overview of Washington felony classifications.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is shoplifting a felony in Washington? Usually not. Shoplifting of $750 or less is ordinarily third-degree theft, a gross misdemeanor. It becomes a felony when the value exceeds $750 (alone or with thefts added together), when a special circumstance applies (an emergency exit, a lined bag or tag remover, or thefts at three or more stores within 180 days), when the property is worth at least $750 and an accomplice is involved or the total reaches $750 within 180 days (organized retail theft), or when property worth at least $250 is taken with intent to resell it.

Is stealing a credit card a felony even if I never used it? Yes. An access device is listed in the second-degree theft statute regardless of value, which makes it a class C felony.

The store valued the item too high. Does that matter? It can. Value is market value at the time and place of the theft, and near the $750 or $5,000 line it can decide the degree.

Do I have to pay the civil demand letter? The letter is a settlement demand, not a court order. RCW 4.24.230 lets a store sue for penalties capped by statute, and paying does not stop a criminal prosecution.

Talk to a BFQ Law Washington Attorney

A Washington theft charge turns on what the property was, how the State values it, whether incidents are being added together, and whether a special circumstance applies. Those answers can move a case between district court and superior court, so test them early.

Read more on our theft defense page and our criminal defense practice, or reach us through our contact page. Nothing here promises an outcome, and every case depends on its own facts.