Is Grand Theft a Felony in Florida? Degrees, Penalties, and Priors

Yes, grand theft is always a felony in Florida. Once stolen property is worth $750 or more, the offense crosses out of misdemeanor petit theft and into felony territory, and the penalties climb from there based on the value taken and the type of property involved.¹ At the top end, a first-degree grand theft conviction can carry up to 30 years in state prison.

The Line Between Petit Theft and Grand Theft

Both petit theft and grand theft require the same core conduct: knowingly taking or using someone else’s property with the intent to deprive them of it. The classification turns on value. Property worth less than $750 is generally petit theft, a misdemeanor. Property worth $750 or more is grand theft, a felony.¹

Value is not the only path to a felony. Certain types of property trigger grand theft no matter how little they are worth, and a person with two or more prior theft convictions can be charged with a felony for even a small shoplifting incident. Both routes catch people who assume they are looking at a misdemeanor.

The Three Degrees of Grand Theft

Florida sorts grand theft into three degrees. Each has a value range, and each also picks up specific categories of property that qualify regardless of dollar amount.

Third-Degree Grand Theft

This is the entry-level felony charge. It covers property valued at $750 or more but less than $20,000. Certain items also qualify as third-degree grand theft at any value:¹

Firearms
Motor vehicles
Wills, codicils, and other testamentary documents
Commercially farmed animals, including livestock, registered bee colonies, and aquaculture species
Fire extinguishers installed in a building
Stop signs
Citrus fruit in quantities of 2,000 or more individual pieces
Controlled substances
Anhydrous ammonia
Property taken from a posted construction site

Practically, this means stealing a $200 handgun or a rundown car worth $500 is a felony, not a misdemeanor.

Second-Degree Grand Theft

Property valued at $20,000 or more but less than $100,000 falls into second-degree grand theft.¹ Cargo worth less than $50,000 that has entered the stream of interstate or intrastate commerce also lands here.

Two more categories qualify automatically: law enforcement equipment worth $300 or more taken from an authorized emergency vehicle, and emergency medical equipment worth $300 or more taken from a licensed medical facility or permitted ambulance.²

First-Degree Grand Theft

First-degree grand theft is the most serious property theft offense. It applies when the stolen property is worth $100,000 or more, when the item is a semi-trailer that was deployed by law enforcement, or when cargo worth $50,000 or more is stolen from the stream of commerce.¹

A less obvious route to a first-degree charge opens when someone commits any grand theft and either uses a motor vehicle as an active tool of the crime (not just a getaway car) while damaging someone’s real property, or causes more than $1,000 in property damage during the theft.¹ Ramming a fence to strip $1,000 in copper wiring can produce the same first-degree felony as embezzling $150,000.

Prison Time and Fines

Florida sets these statutory maximums:

Third-degree felony: up to 5 years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.³⁴
Second-degree felony: up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.³⁴
First-degree felony: up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.³⁴

Those are ceilings. Judges also have authority to impose probation, community service, and mandatory restitution requiring the defendant to repay the victim. A fine can even exceed the statutory cap when a court sets it at double the offender’s financial gain or double the victim’s loss, whichever is higher.⁴

Defendants with prior felony convictions face steeper exposure. Florida’s prison releasee reoffender statute can turn those maximums into mandatory minimums, stripping the judge of discretion to impose a lighter sentence.³

How Value Is Measured

Because the value of the property drives the degree, valuation is often the most contested piece of a grand theft case. Florida defines value as the fair market value of the property at the time and place it was stolen. If market value cannot reasonably be determined, the statute allows the cost of replacing the property within a reasonable time after the offense.⁵

Fair market value is what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller, not what the owner originally paid. A five-year-old laptop that cost $1,500 new might be worth $400 today. A collectible bought for $200 might now be worth $2,000. Prosecutors usually prove value through the owner’s testimony about cost, condition, and age, or through expert appraisals for unusual or higher-value items. The defense can challenge those figures, and because value can be the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony, it often is.

Prosecutors can also aggregate. When someone steals multiple items as part of a single scheme or course of conduct, the values add up, whether the thefts target one victim or several.⁵ An employee who skims $100 per week from the register for two months has not committed eight misdemeanors; the state can charge one $800 grand theft, pushing the case into felony territory.

When Prior Convictions Turn Petit Theft Into a Felony

A person convicted of petit theft who already has two or more prior theft convictions of any kind faces a third-degree felony, carrying the same potential five-year sentence as someone who stole $5,000 with no record.⁶ Even a $20 shoplifting incident can become a felony if the defendant’s record includes two prior thefts.

A separate retail theft statute targets organized and repeat retail crime. Coordinating theft across store locations, working with others to distract employees, or aggregating stolen retail merchandise worth $750 or more within a 120-day period can produce a third-degree felony charge, and a second violation of the organized retail theft provisions escalates to a second-degree felony.⁷ These charges can stack on top of standard grand theft counts.

Civil Liability Runs Alongside the Criminal Case

A criminal conviction is not the only financial hit. Florida’s civil theft statute lets the victim sue and recover three times the actual damages, plus attorney’s fees and court costs, with a guaranteed minimum recovery of $200 even when the provable loss is smaller.⁸

The burden of proof in civil theft is clear and convincing evidence, higher than the usual civil standard but lower than the criminal beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard. Punitive damages are not available. Because the two cases move independently, an acquittal in criminal court does not automatically block a civil recovery.⁸ Someone convicted of stealing $30,000 in property could face up to 15 years in prison and a separate $90,000 civil judgment plus the victim’s legal bills.

Life After a Grand Theft Conviction

The sentence ends. The felony record does not.

Federal law bars anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison from possessing firearms or ammunition.⁹ Every degree of grand theft in Florida clears that threshold, so a conviction triggers the federal firearms ban.

Voting rights are also affected. Under Florida’s Amendment 4, a person with a felony conviction for an offense other than murder or a sexual crime can register to vote again after completing all terms of the sentence, including prison, probation, and full payment of all fines, fees, costs, and restitution. Someone who cannot pay may petition a court to convert the financial obligation to community service; completing that service satisfies the requirement.¹⁰

Then there is the record itself. Employers, licensing boards, and landlords run background checks, and a grand theft conviction signals a problem with trustworthiness around property and money. Those consequences often outlast the formal sentence by decades.

1
Justia Law. Florida Code 812.014 – Theft
2
Florida Senate. Florida Code 812.014 – Theft
3
Justia Law. Florida Code 775.082
4
Justia Law. Florida Code 775.083 – Fines
5
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Chapter 812 – Theft, Robbery, and Related Crimes
6
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 812.014 – Theft
7
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 812.015 – Retail and Farm Theft; Transit Fare Evasion; Mandatory Fine
8
Florida Senate. Florida Code 772.11 – Civil Remedy for Theft or Exploitation
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
10
Florida Division of Elections. Felon Voting Rights