Any person who shall steal or unlawfully take or detain, or willfully or maliciously or wantonly write upon, cut, tear, deface, disfigure, soil, obliterate, break or destroy, or who shall sell or buy or receive, knowing the same to have been stolen, any book, document, newspaper, periodical, map, chart, picture, portrait, engraving, statue, coin, medal, apparatus, specimen, or other work of literature or object of art or curiosity deposited in a public library, gallery, museum, collection, fair or exhibition, or in any department or office of State or local government, or in a library, gallery, museum, collection, or exhibition, belonging to any incorporated college or university, or any incorporated institution devoted to educational, scientific, literary, artistic, historical or charitable purposes, shall, if the value of the property stolen, detained, sold, bought or received knowing same to have been stolen, or if the damage done by writing upon, cutting, tearing, defacing, disfiguring, soiling, obliterating, breaking or destroying any such property, shall not exceed fifty dollars ($50.00), be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. If the value of the property stolen, detained, sold or received knowing same to have been stolen, or the amount of damage done in any of the ways or manners hereinabove set out, shall exceed the sum of fifty dollars ($50.00), the person committing same shall be punished as a Class H felon.

HISTORICAL AND STATUTORY NOTES

Laws 1993, c. 539, § 1359, provides:

"This act becomes effective October 1, 1994, and applies to offenses occurring on or after that date. Prosecutions for offenses committed before the effective date of this act are not abated or affected by this act, and the statutes that would be applicable but for this act remain applicable to those prosecutions." [Amended by Laws 1994, Ex.Sess., c. 24, § 14(c), eff. March 26, 1994.]

Laws 1993, c. 539, was ratified July 24, 1993.

Local Modifications

Dare County Laws 1983, c. 349.

CROSS REFERENCES

Felony sentencing and punishment, see § 15A-1340.10 et seq.
Forfeiture of gain acquired through commission of felony, see § 14-2.3.
Forfeiture of licensing privileges after felony conviction, see § 15A-1331A.
Misdemeanor sentencing and punishment, see § 15A-1340.13 et seq.

LIBRARY REFERENCES

Key Numbers
Larceny 21.
Malicious Mischief 1.
Westlaw Key Number Searches: 234k21; 248k1.

Encyclopedias
5 Strong's N.C. Index 4th, Colleges and Universities §§ 10, 23.
C.J.S. Larceny §§ 12, 15, 51.
C.J.S. Malicious or Criminal Mischief or Damage to Property §§ 2 to 5.