Mo. Rev. Stat. » Chapter 570
Missouri Revised Statutes

Mo. Rev. Stat. § 570.030 (2026)

Stealing

✓ current as of May 2026
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  570.030.  Stealing — penalties. — 1.  A person commits the offense of stealing if he or she:

  (1)  Appropriates property or services of another with the purpose to deprive him or her thereof, either without his or her consent or by means of deceit or coercion;

  (2)  Attempts to appropriate anhydrous ammonia or liquid nitrogen of another with the purpose to deprive him or her thereof, either without his or her consent or by means of deceit or coercion; or

  (3)  For the purpose of depriving the owner of a lawful interest therein, receives, retains or disposes of property of another knowing that it has been stolen, or believing that it has been stolen.

  2.  The offense of stealing is a class A felony if the property appropriated consists of any of the following containing any amount of anhydrous ammonia:  a tank truck, tank trailer, rail tank car, bulk storage tank, field nurse, field tank or field applicator.

  3.  The offense of stealing is a class B felony if:

  (1)  The property appropriated or attempted to be appropriated consists of any amount of anhydrous ammonia or liquid nitrogen;

  (2)  The property consists of any animal considered livestock as the term livestock is defined in section 144.010, or any captive wildlife held under permit issued by the conservation commission, and the value of the animal or animals appropriated exceeds three thousand dollars and that person has previously been found guilty of appropriating any animal considered livestock or captive wildlife held under permit issued by the conservation commission.  Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, such person shall serve a minimum prison term of not less than eighty percent of his or her sentence before he or she is eligible for probation, parole, conditional release, or other early release by the department of corrections;

  (3)  A person appropriates property consisting of a motor vehicle, watercraft, or aircraft, and that person has previously been found guilty of two stealing-related offenses committed on two separate occasions where such offenses occurred within ten years of the date of occurrence of the present offense;

  (4)  The property appropriated or attempted to be appropriated consists of any animal considered livestock as the term is defined in section 144.010 if the value of the livestock exceeds ten thousand dollars;

  (5)  The property appropriated or attempted to be appropriated is owned by or in the custody of a financial institution and the property is taken or attempted to be taken physically from an individual person to deprive the owner or custodian of the property; or

  (6)  The person appropriates property, the person's course of conduct is part of an organized retail theft, and the value of the property taken, combined with any property damage inflicted in such theft, is ten thousand dollars or more.

  4.  The offense of stealing is a class C felony if:

  (1)  The value of the property or services appropriated is twenty-five thousand dollars or more;

  (2)  The property is a teller machine or the contents of a teller machine, including cash, regardless of the value or amount; or

  (3)  The person appropriates property, the person's course of conduct is part of an organized retail theft, and the value of the property taken, combined with any property damage inflicted in such theft, is seven hundred fifty dollars or more but less than ten thousand dollars.

  5.  The offense of stealing is a class D felony if:

  (1)  The value of the property or services appropriated is seven hundred fifty dollars or more;

  (2)  The offender physically takes the property appropriated from the person of the victim; or

  (3)  The property appropriated consists of:

  (a)  Any motor vehicle, watercraft or aircraft;

  (b)  Any will or unrecorded deed affecting real property;

  (c)  Any credit device, debit device or letter of credit;

  (d)  Any firearms;

  (e)  Any explosive weapon as defined in section 571.010;

  (f)  Any United States national flag designed, intended and used for display on buildings or stationary flagstaffs in the open;

  (g)  Any original copy of an act, bill or resolution, introduced or acted upon by the legislature of the state of Missouri;

  (h)  Any pleading, notice, judgment or any other record or entry of any court of this state, any other state or of the United States;

  (i)  Any book of registration or list of voters required by chapter 115;

  (j)  Any animal considered livestock as that term is defined in section 144.010;

  (k)  Any live fish raised for commercial sale with a value of seventy-five dollars or more;

  (l)  Any captive wildlife held under permit issued by the conservation commission;

  (m)  Any controlled substance as defined by section 195.010;

  (n)  Ammonium nitrate;

  (o)  Any wire, electrical transformer, or metallic wire associated with transmitting telecommunications, video, internet, or voice over internet protocol service, or any other device or pipe that is associated with conducting electricity or transporting natural gas or other combustible fuels; or

  (p)  Any material appropriated with the intent to use such material to manufacture, compound, produce, prepare, test or analyze amphetamine or methamphetamine or any of their analogues.

  6.  The offense of stealing is a class E felony if:

  (1)  The property appropriated is an animal;

  (2)  The property is a catalytic converter;

  (3)  A person has previously been found guilty of three stealing-related offenses committed on three separate occasions where such offenses occurred within ten years of the date of occurrence of the present offense; or

  (4)  The property appropriated is a letter, postal card, package, bag, or other sealed article that was delivered by a common carrier or delivery service and not yet received by the addressee or that had been left to be collected for shipment by a common carrier or delivery service.

  7.  The offense of stealing is a class D misdemeanor if the property is not of a type listed in subsection 2, 3, 5, or 6 of this section, the property appropriated has a value of less than one hundred fifty dollars, and the person has no previous findings of guilt for a stealing-related offense.

  8.  The offense of stealing is a class A misdemeanor if no other penalty is specified in this section.

  9.  If a violation of this section is subject to enhanced punishment based on prior findings of guilt, such findings of guilt shall be pleaded and proven in the same manner as required by section 558.021.

  10.  The appropriation of any property or services of a type listed in subsection 2, 3, 5, or 6 of this section or of a value of seven hundred fifty dollars or more may be considered a separate felony and may be charged in separate counts.

  11.  The value of property or services appropriated pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct, whether from the same or several owners and whether at the same or different times, constitutes a single criminal episode and may be aggregated in determining the grade of the offense, except as set forth in subsection 10 of this section.

  12.  As used in this section, the term "organized retail theft" means:

  (1)  Any act of stealing committed by one or more persons, as part of any agreement to steal property from any business, and separate acts of stealing that are part of any ongoing agreement to steal may be aggregated for the purpose of determining value regardless of whether such acts are committed in the same jurisdiction or at the same time;

  (2)  Any act of receiving or possessing any property that has been taken or stolen in violation of subdivision (1) of this subsection while knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe the property is stolen from any business in violation of this section, and separate acts of receiving or possessing such stolen property that are part of any ongoing agreement to receive or possess such stolen property may be aggregated for the purpose of determining value regardless of whether such acts are committed in the same jurisdiction or at the same time; or

  (3)  Any act of organizing, supervising, financing, leading, or managing between one or more persons to engage for profit in a scheme or course of conduct to effectuate or intend to effectuate the transfer or sale of property stolen from any business in violation of this section, and separate acts of organizing, supervising, financing, leading, or managing between one or more persons to engage for profit in a scheme or course of conduct to effectuate or intend to effectuate the transfer or sale of such stolen property that are part of any ongoing agreement to organize, supervise, finance, lead, or manage between one or more persons to engage for profit in a scheme or course of conduct to effectuate or intend to effectuate the transfer or sale of such stolen property may be aggregated for the purpose of determining the value regardless of whether such acts are committed in the same jurisdiction or at the same time.

  13.  If any prosecuting attorney or circuit attorney makes a request in writing to the attorney general, the attorney general shall have the authority to commence and prosecute the offense of stealing if such offense involves organized retail theft, and any other offenses that directly arise from or causally occur as a result of an alleged violation of the offense of stealing involving organized retail theft, in each or any county or a city not within a county in which the offense occurred with the same power and authority granted to prosecuting attorneys in section 56.060 and circuit attorneys in section 56.450, except that all costs and fees of such prosecution by the attorney general shall be paid by the state and not by any county or local government.

  14.  No provision of this section shall grant any additional power to the attorney general beyond commencement and prosecution of offenses as authorized in this section.

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(L. 1977 S.B. 60, A.L. 1981 S.B. 202, A.L. 1985 H.B. 333 & 64, A.L. 1996 S.B. 657, A.L. 1997 H.B. 635, A.L. 1998 H.B. 1147, et al., A.L. 2001 H.B. 471 merged with S.B. 89 & 37, A.L. 2002 H.B. 1888 merged with S.B. 712, A.L. 2003 S.B. 5, A.L. 2004 S.B. 1211, A.L. 2005 H.B. 353, A.L. 2009 H.B. 62, A.L. 2013 S.B. 9, A.L. 2014 S.B. 491, A.L. 2016 S.B. 624, A.L. 2021 H.B. 69 merged with H.B. 271, A.L. 2023 S.B. 186, A.L. 2025 H.B. 495)

Severability clause, see § 1.1001

CROSS REFERENCE:

Child support, retention of erroneously paid support to be crime of stealing, when, 454.531.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 1,150 cases (38 in the last 5 years), 1953–2025 · leading case: State v. Smith, 522 S.W.3d 221 (Mo. 2017).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
State v. Smith, 522 S.W.3d 221 (Mo. 2017). · cites it 17× “Smith argues his convictions for all four felony stealing counts must be reversed and remanded for resen-tencing as misdemeanors because the value of property or services is not an element of the crime of stealing as defined in section 570.”
State v. Goebel, 83 S.W.3d 639 (Mo. Ct. App. 2002). · cites it 40× “s of a willfully false statement or representation, or by willful concealment or failure to report any fact or event required to be reported by any law, regulation, or rule of this state or the United States, or by impersonation, collusion, or other fraudulent device, any public…”
State v. Presberry, 128 S.W.3d 80 (Mo. Ct. App. 2003). · cites it 16× “3(2), in fact any stealing charge under Section 570.030, require the factfinder to find beyond a reasonable doubt that the appropriation occurred without the person's consent or by deceit or coercion.”
State ex rel. Windeknecht v. Mesmer, 530 S.W.3d 500 (Mo. 2017). · cites it 6× “Instead, Bazell looked at the definition of the offense of stealing in section 570.”
State of Missouri v. Amanda N. Bazell, 497 S.W.3d 263 (Mo. 2016). · cites it 4× “Defendant was charged as a prior and persistent offender with two' counts of first-degree burglary and four total counts of stealing under section 570.030. Three of the four stealing counts were charged as class C felonies— one count for each of the two firearms stolen and one…”
State v. Green, 812 S.W.2d 779 (Mo. Ct. App. 1991). · cites it 16× “170 (1986), burglary in the second degree (Count I), Mo.Rev.Stat. § 570.030 (1986), stealing over one hundred and fifty dollars (Count II), and Mo.”
Bosworth v. State, 559 S.W.3d 5 (Mo. Ct. App. 2018). · cites it 11× “170 3 and the class C felony of stealing a credit card under Section 570.030 RSMo Cum. Supp. 2013. On December 10, 2015, Appellant entered an open plea of guilty for both charges.”
State v. Quisenberry, 639 S.W.2d 579 (Mo. 1982). · cites it 14× “NOTES [1] Section 570.030 RSMo 1978. Defendant's alleged crimed occurred on December 5, 1979.”
State v. Holland, 653 S.W.2d 670 (Mo. 1983). · cites it 12× “A person forcibly steals, and thereby commits robbery, when, in the course of stealing, as defined in section 570.030, RSMo, he uses or threatens the immediate use of physical force upon another person for the purpose of: (a) Preventing or overcoming resistance to the taking of…”
Mischelle Richter v. Advance Auto Parts, 686 F.3d 847 (8th Cir. 2012). · cites it 4× “First, she reported that another employee was abusing the employee discount program, an action constituting felony theft under Mo. Rev. Stat. § 570.030 , as well as mail and wire fraud and theft of honest services under 18 U.”
State of Missouri v. Tatum Clark McMillian, 524 S.W.3d 51 (Mo. Ct. App. 2016). · cites it 14× “The State filed its first complaint against McMillian on May 31, 2013 in the Circuit Court of Howell County and charged him with the class C Felony of stealing by deceit, section 570.030 1 (“Howell County Prosecution”).”
Peiffer v. State, 88 S.W.3d 439 (Mo. 2002). · cites it 6× “Louis County to stealing in violation of section 570.030. The parties agree that both crimes involved the taking and possession of the same 1999 Saturn automobile.”
Show all 1,150 citing cases →
— Mo. Rev. Stat. § 570.030(1) — 6 cases
Jones v. Galaxy 1 Mktg., Inc., 478 S.W.3d 556 (Mo. Ct. App. 2015).
Wright v. State, 764 S.W.2d 96 (Mo. Ct. App. 1988).
State v. Inman, 673 S.W.2d 483 (Mo. Ct. App. 1984).
Carlos Jones v. Galaxy 1 Mktg., Inc. (Mo. Ct. App. 2015).
State v. Devereux, 823 S.W.2d 2 (Mo. Ct. App. 1991).
— Mo. Rev. Stat. § 570.030(2) — 1 case
State v. Sheets, 641 S.W.2d 112 (Mo. Ct. App. 1982).
— Mo. Rev. Stat. § 570.030(3) — 5 cases
State v. Oris, 892 S.W.2d 770 (Mo. Ct. App. 1995).
State v. Day, 719 S.W.2d 291 (Mo. Ct. App. 1986).
State v. Feeler, 635 S.W.2d 24 (Mo. Ct. App. 1982).
State v. Porter, 641 S.W.2d 843 (Mo. Ct. App. 1982).
In Re Tb, 351 S.W.3d 243 (Mo. Ct. App. 2011).
— Mo. Rev. Stat. § 570.030(3)(h) — 1 case
State v. Feeler, 634 S.W.2d 484 (Mo. Ct. App. 1982).
— Mo. Rev. Stat. § 570.030(3Xh) — 1 case
State v. Feeler, 634 S.W.2d 484 (Mo. Ct. App. 1982).
— Mo. Rev. Stat. § 570.030(8) — 1 case
State of Missouri v. Matthew Ryan Rouner (Mo. Ct. App. 2023).
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