Updated October 2026 | The Bulldog Law | California Theft Crimes Defense

Theft is taking someone's property without consent, intending to keep it. Burglary is entering a building, room, or locked car with the intent to commit theft or a felony inside, complete the moment you enter, whether or not you take anything. Robbery is taking property from a person, or from their immediate presence, against their will, by force or fear. The same stolen laptop is a six-month petty theft if it was lifted from a desk, a three-year commercial burglary if the thief entered the office to get it, a six-year first-degree burglary if the office was a home, and a nine-year robbery if the owner was pushed to the floor on the way out. In California, larceny and theft are the same crime; burglary needs no breaking in; and robbery is always a felony and always a strike.

The Bulldog Law's attorneys sort these three charges every week, because prosecutors file them interchangeably and the difference decides the case. A shoplifting arrest becomes a burglary complaint. A purse-snatch becomes a robbery. A fight over a bar tab becomes a robbery because someone's phone ended up in the wrong pocket. What follows is what each crime requires, where the lines between them actually fall, and how a defense attorney moves a case down the ladder from robbery to burglary to theft, which is the work in most of these cases. Call (888) 928-1609 or message our team.

The three crimes side by side

Theft: the taking

California consolidated larceny, embezzlement, and theft by false pretenses into one offense called theft in Penal Code 484. The word larceny appears in older case law and in other states' statutes; in California it means theft, and a person searching for the difference between larceny and theft here will find none. Theft requires taking possession of property owned by someone else, without the owner's consent, with the intent to deprive the owner of it permanently or for long enough to deprive them of a major portion of its value, and moving it, however slightly. Our attorneys cover the statute on our theft crimes page.

The amount sets the level. Theft of $950 or less is petty theft under Penal Code 490.2, a misdemeanor with up to six months in jail. Theft of more than $950, or of a firearm, a car, or certain agricultural and other listed property regardless of value, is grand theft under Penal Code 487, a wobbler carrying 16 months, two, or three years as a felony. Neither is a strike. Shoplifting, entering a commercial establishment during business hours intending to steal $950 or less, is its own misdemeanor under Penal Code 459.5 and, since Proposition 47, cannot be charged as burglary. Theft is the floor of this ladder, and the defense goal in most burglary and robbery cases is to reach it.

Burglary: the entry

Penal Code 459 defines burglary as entering any house, room, apartment, shop, warehouse, store, vehicle when its doors are locked, or other listed structure, with the intent to commit grand or petit larceny or any felony. Three things about that definition surprise people. No breaking in is required; walking through an open door with the intent to steal is burglary. No theft is required; the crime is complete on entry with the intent, and a person who entered to steal, changed their mind, and left has still committed burglary. And the intended crime need not be theft; entering to commit any felony, an assault, a sexual offense, vandalism over $400, is burglary too.

Penal Code 460 sets the degrees. First-degree burglary is burglary of an inhabited dwelling, a place where someone lives, whether or not they are home: a felony with two, four, or six years, a serious felony and a strike, and a violent felony if another person was present. Second-degree burglary is everything else, commercial buildings, locked cars, storage units: a wobbler with 16 months, two, or three years as a felony. Our attorneys' page on burglary under Penal Code 459 covers the intent element, which is where burglary cases are won; the prosecution has to prove what the defendant intended at the moment of entry, and intent formed afterward is not burglary. A related question, burglary vs. home invasion, has a short answer: home invasion is not a separate California crime, it is first-degree burglary, or first-degree robbery if the residents were confronted, charged with the enhancements those statutes carry.

Robbery: the person

Penal Code 211 defines robbery as the felonious taking of personal property in the possession of another, from their person or immediate presence, against their will, accomplished by means of force or fear. Every element points at a victim. The property must be taken from a person or from their immediate presence, the area they could have controlled. It must be against their will. And it must be taken by force or by fear, meaning fear of injury to the victim, their property, or a family member. The force can be slight, enough to overcome resistance, and the fear can be implied by a demand and a hand in a pocket; no weapon is required, and the phrase armed robbery describes an enhancement, not a separate crime, in California.

Two doctrines expand robbery beyond the mugging. The Estes rule, from People v. Estes in 1983, holds that a shoplifter who uses force to escape a store employee has committed robbery, because the force was used to keep the property; the theft became a robbery at the door. And a taking from a victim who was unconscious or distracted is theft, not robbery, unless force or fear was used to take or retain it, which is the line in purse-snatch and pickpocket cases: a snatch so fast the victim could not resist is grand theft from the person, a wobbler; a snatch the victim resisted, even briefly, is robbery.

Robbery is always a felony and always a violent felony under Penal Code 667.5(c), which makes it a strike with 85 percent custody credits. Second-degree robbery carries two, three, or five years. First-degree robbery, which is robbery of a driver or passenger in a vehicle, robbery in an inhabited dwelling, or robbery of a person at or just after using an ATM, carries three, four, or six years, and three, six, or nine when committed in concert with two or more people inside a home. A gun adds ten years under Penal Code 12022.53. Our page on robbery under Penal Code 211 covers the degrees and enhancements, and carjacking under Penal Code 215, robbery of a vehicle from its driver, is its own violent felony with three, five, or nine years.

Where the lines actually fall

The three crimes are not exclusive, and a single incident often satisfies more than one. The lines that matter in real cases:

Theft becomes burglary when there was an entry with intent. The shoplifter who formed the intent to steal before walking in, which the prosecution infers from tools, a prior visit, or a pattern, is a burglar; since Prop 47, that is shoplifting if the store was open and the amount was under $950, and commercial burglary otherwise. The guest who stole from a host did not burgle, because the entry was consensual and without intent; the guest who came back later and entered uninvited did.

Theft becomes robbery when force or fear was used against a person, at the taking or to keep the property afterward. The Estes rule is the usual path, and it is the reason a shoplifting case becomes a strike offense in the parking lot. Our attorneys defend Estes robberies on whether the force was actually used to retain property, as opposed to simply to escape, and on whether the employee's contact was the force rather than the defendant's.

Burglary becomes robbery when the burglar confronts someone. A residential burglary in which the resident comes home, and the burglar takes property by force or fear, is first-degree burglary and first-degree robbery, both charged, with punishment usually imposed on the robbery under Penal Code 654.

Robbery drops to theft when the force or fear is not proven. A taking from an unconscious person, a snatch without resistance, a demand with no threat and no force, or a dispute over property the defendant honestly believed was theirs is not robbery, and the reduction from a violent strike to a wobbler or a misdemeanor is the single most valuable result in this area of practice.

Everything becomes something worse during a declared emergency. Burglary and theft committed during a state of emergency are charged as looting under Penal Code 463 with mandatory jail minimums, and the emergency declaration is the only added element.

How these cases are defended

By element, and by level. Theft cases turn on consent, claim of right, and value: property the defendant believed they had a right to take, or that was worth less than the prosecution claims, is a different case. Burglary cases turn on intent at entry; the prosecution's proof of what a person meant to do when they walked through a door is almost always circumstantial, and a credible alternative purpose defeats it. Robbery cases turn on force and fear, on the Estes question, and on identification, since robberies are often brief encounters with strangers. Across all three, the markers of a weak case are the same: a single witness, no video, property that was never recovered, and an interview in which the defendant explained.

The level is the negotiation. A robbery that resolves as grand theft from the person removes the strike; a first-degree burglary that resolves as second-degree, or as receiving stolen property, removes the serious-felony status; a commercial burglary that resolves as petty theft becomes a misdemeanor eligible for expungement and, often, diversion. The same stolen item produces every one of those outcomes depending on what the prosecution can prove and what the defense can show, and the sentence ranges in the table above are the reason our attorneys argue every element. For non-citizens, the level matters twice: theft offenses are crimes involving moral turpitude, robbery and burglary of a dwelling are aggravated felonies with a year's sentence, and the immigration analysis drives the plea. Where the theft was from an employer, the charge is embezzlement, a fourth statute with its own rules.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between burglary and robbery?

Burglary is entering a building, room, or locked vehicle with the intent to commit theft or any felony inside; it is complete the moment you cross the threshold with that intent, whether or not you take anything or anyone is there. Robbery is taking property from a person, or from their immediate presence, against their will, by force or fear. Burglary is about the entry; robbery is about the victim. You can burgle an empty house and never meet anyone. You cannot rob anyone without confronting them.

What is the difference between theft and robbery?

Force. Theft, which California calls larceny in older statutes, is taking someone's property without their consent, with intent to deprive them of it. Robbery is theft plus force or fear used against a person to take or keep the property. A pickpocket commits theft; a mugger commits robbery. Snatching a purse so quickly the victim could not resist is usually theft, but if the victim held on and was pulled, it becomes robbery, and California courts draw that line case by case.

Is larceny the same as theft in California?

Yes. California merged larceny, embezzlement, and false pretenses into a single crime called theft in Penal Code 484, and the word larceny survives only in older case law and in other states. Theft of property worth more than $950, or of a firearm, car, or certain other items, is grand theft under Penal Code 487; theft of $950 or less is petty theft. Larceny vs. theft is a distinction without a difference here.

Which is worse: burglary, robbery, or theft?

Robbery, then burglary, then theft, in general. Robbery is always a felony and a violent felony under the Three Strikes law, with two to nine years depending on degree and circumstances. Residential burglary is a felony and a serious felony, with two to six years; commercial burglary is a wobbler. Theft is a misdemeanor at $950 or less and a wobbler above it, and it is not a strike. The same stolen television produces a six-month petty theft, a three-year commercial burglary, a six-year first-degree burglary, or a nine-year robbery depending on how it was taken.

Can you be charged with burglary and robbery for the same incident?

Yes. A person who enters a home intending to steal and then confronts the resident and takes property by force has committed first-degree burglary and first-degree robbery, and both are charged. Penal Code 654 limits punishment for a single course of conduct with one objective, so the sentence is usually imposed on the robbery with the burglary stayed, but both convictions stand, and both are strikes.

Related reading from our attorneys

• Robbery under Penal Code 211
• Burglary under Penal Code 459
• List of felonies in California

Charged with theft, burglary, or robbery? The label is the first thing we fight

The Bulldog Law's theft crimes defense attorneys handle theft, burglary, robbery, and carjacking cases across California, from shoplifting citations to first-degree robbery strikes, with the immigration consequences handled in-house. Visit our criminal defense page, call (888) 928-1609, or reach us online.