If you hit someone's property and cause damage, steal part of the property, and flee, wouldn't the charge change to a felony? I'm pretty sure stealing his license plate is a felony charge. A hit and run on private property, not sure.

There is a threshold of damage that has to be passed ($ amount) for it to become a felony, not exactly sure but it used to be $600 years ago to personal property. License plate I could see being an automatic felony because it could be used to misrepresent a vehicle (then you get into cheating the state on taxes and stuff which is REALLY BAD!). The actual accident may have been a civil matter, but once not reported and going over threshold, I think it becomes a public interest case which would grant criminal charges, if I'm not mistaken. I bet a good lawyer could "doll" it up to the highest degree possible!

yes it should be reported immediately but my guess is that plate that was picked up was the at fault drivers plate since he took the time to pick it up. People like that suck and there's no shortage of mental midgets

if the act is intentional, its criminal mischief for it to be a felony, damage has to be over over 2500. Again, the Officer has to prove it was intentional

Regarding the License plate: stolen license plates are considered a Class C misd under rule of law. State puts the replacement value at $5

Okay, thanks! I thought for sure it would carry more weight than that.

Wow! That whole situation just plain stinks then!

Yea, I guess the mod got involved in my post! LOL