Hello Jacustomer,

If I've got this right, your son found a damaged credit card, but decided to charge something. He then contacted the company, confessed to what he did, paid the debt and then destroyed the card.

It would appear that the company reported this to the police.

This is credit card fraud, which is a form of theft. Depending upon how much value he charged, and what state he lives in, this offense could be a Misdemeanor or a Felony. He did, however, decide to do the right thing, and, it appears, did so quickly and before the police got involved, which are facts in his favor.

It's entirely possible that nothing further will come of this. He has made good the cardholder's loss, and he came into possession of the card honestly -- which is to say that he did not steal it from the cardholder but found it on the street. I would not call the police officer back to learn anything more. Your son will be the first to know if they are going to go forward. Had the officer wanted to arrest him, he could have done so.

If on the other hand, the police call and want him to come in and talk further about this, he should not do so. Their call will mean that they are looking to arrest him and just need some more details, which they are hoping that he will reveal. A suspect has no duty to cooperate in his own arrest ever. To the contrary, he has a Constitutional right to remain silent and refrain from self-incrimination. He can just tell the police that he wants to speak to a lawyer before discussing the incident further. They will understand what that means and leave him alone.

It's possible that he will siimply receive a summons or citation in the mail telling him that there is a criminal case against him now and informing him of the date, on which he must attend. If that happens and you/he can afford a lawyer, he should have one with him on the court date. If he can't pay for a lawyer, he can just plead not guilty to the charge when he is arraigned on it (when the court reads the charges into the official record and asks how he pleads) and ask the judge to appoint him a public defender.

I don't see much very worrisome coming out of this even if he is charged, given the facts you've mentioned, which I assume are correct. With a lawyer, he will likely be able to come out of this without a Criminal Record to haunt him all of his life.

If I got your facts very wrong or left something out here that you still want to know, please use the reply tab below to tell me what it is, and I can expand on my answer.