united-states common-law
What would happen if you staged or hoaxed the commission of a crime?
<p>This was inspired by the title of the following:</p>
<p><a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/82587/in-a-state-with-the-common-law-definition-of-theft-can-you-force-a-store-to-tak">In a state with the common law definition of theft, can you force a store to take cash by &quot;pretending&quot; to steal?</a></p>
<p>but in this situation, we make the crime <em>actually</em> pretend. Suppose you are good at sleight of hand, i.e. dextrous illusion-making like a magician. Using a product or good you actually own that looks to an outsider's eyes just like one in the store, but which you've marked in a discreet place so you are assured you don't accidentally actually take the one that isn't yours, and using your magician skills, you make it look like you were pocketing the wares when you actually didn't. To security, and to the limited resolution on a surveillance camera, it looks like a theft, and the police are called.</p>
<p>What happens? Even if the illusionary nature is eventually discovered and proven (e.g. if the store keeps suitable inventory records which they can cross-check with transaction logs and they do and find that no items are unaccounted for), does the mere fact of having &quot;hoaxed&quot; the crime itself constitute some kind of crime in at least the same common-law jurisdictions? Could you be charged with something oblique like &quot;wasting police time&quot; or something? Could <em>someone</em> be charged with that? Even if none of that, would you still stand a strong chance to be successfully convicted of theft directly (albeit <em>de facto</em> wrongfully, but still), because someone could always claim you switched the items and it'd be your word against theirs that that mark was on the one you owned and not the one you didn't, and the injustices of unequal bargaining power would work against you?</p>

<p>I can’t think of any laws against pretending to commit a crime, <em>per se</em>.  For example, undercover police officers often pretend to buy or sell illicit goods, to see who will take them up on the offer.</p>
<p>However, pretending to commit some crimes could be a crime.  if you intentionally pretend to be violent or unstable, and this “puts another person in reasonable apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact,” that could be common assault.</p>
