Missouri Stealing Under § 570.030: Felony Classes and Penalties

Missouri’s stealing law, Section 570.030, grades theft offenses on a sliding scale that runs from a Class D misdemeanor at the bottom to a Class A felony at the top. Where a given case lands depends on three things: the dollar value of what was taken, the type of property involved, and the defendant’s prior stealing-related convictions. The lowest tier carries only a fine; the highest carries ten to thirty years or life in prison.¹

What the Statute Covers

A person commits stealing by taking someone else’s property or services with intent to deprive the owner of them. The statute reaches three methods: taking without consent, obtaining property through deception, and using threats to force the owner to hand it over.¹

Two situations catch people off guard. Receiving or keeping property you know or believe to be stolen counts as stealing on its own, even if you were not involved in the original theft. And attempting to take anhydrous ammonia or liquid nitrogen is treated as stealing even when the attempt fails.¹

Misdemeanor Stealing

The lowest charge is a Class D misdemeanor. It applies when the property is worth less than $150, the item is not on any of the special-category lists, and the defendant has no prior stealing-related convictions. The maximum penalty is a $500 fine and no jail time.¹

A stealing offense that does not fit any other specific category defaults to a Class A misdemeanor. In practice, that covers property worth $150 to $749, or property under $150 when the defendant has a prior stealing conviction. A Class A misdemeanor carries up to one year in jail.¹²

Class E Felony Stealing

Some low-value thefts are felonies because of what was taken rather than what it was worth. Stealing is a Class E felony when the item is:

Any animal (pets and other animals, not only livestock)
A catalytic converter
A package or letter that was being handled by a common carrier or delivery service and had not yet reached the addressee, or that had been left out for pickup by a carrier

The same class also applies to the repeat-offender enhancement described further down. Stealing a $20 package off a porch is a felony in Missouri, not a petty offense.¹

Class D Felony Stealing

Stealing becomes a Class D felony whenever the value reaches $750 or more, whatever the property is. It also becomes a Class D felony, regardless of value, when the property falls into any of these categories:¹

Motor vehicles, watercraft, or aircraft
Firearms or explosive weapons
Credit cards, debit cards, or letters of credit
Wills or unrecorded deeds affecting real property
Controlled substances
Ammonium nitrate or materials intended for manufacturing methamphetamine
Court records such as pleadings, judgments, or case entries
Livestock (horses, cattle, swine, sheep, goats, and mules)

A person who takes a single goat worth $75 faces the same Class D felony as a person who takes $750 in cash.

Class C Felony Stealing

Three situations put stealing at the Class C felony level. The offense reaches this tier when the value of the stolen property or services is $25,000 or more, when the property is an ATM or its contents (whatever the machine held), or when the case involves organized retail theft valued between $750 and $10,000. A Class C felony carries three to ten years in prison.¹²

For organized retail theft, the threshold is calculated by adding the value of the stolen merchandise to any property damage caused during the theft. A person who takes $500 in merchandise and does $300 in damage clears the $750 line.

Class B Felony Stealing

The Class B tier, punishable by five to fifteen years in prison, is reserved for specific scenarios:¹

Stealing any amount of anhydrous ammonia or liquid nitrogen
Stealing a motor vehicle, watercraft, or aircraft when the defendant has two or more prior stealing-related convictions in the past ten years
Stealing livestock worth more than $10,000, or stealing any livestock worth more than $3,000 with a prior livestock theft conviction; in the prior-conviction scenario, the defendant must serve at least 80% of the sentence before becoming eligible for early release
Taking property owned by or in the custody of a financial institution physically from a person
Organized retail theft valued at $10,000 or more

Class A Felony Stealing

The most serious classification under 570.030 applies to stealing equipment containing anhydrous ammonia, including tank trucks, tank trailers, rail tank cars, bulk storage tanks, and field applicators. A Class A felony carries ten to thirty years in prison or life.¹²

Sentence and Fine Ranges

The authorized penalties for each class that appears in 570.030:²

Class D misdemeanor: fine up to $500, no jail
Class A misdemeanor: up to one year in jail
Class E felony: up to four years in prison, fine up to $10,000
Class D felony: up to seven years in prison, fine up to $10,000
Class C felony: three to ten years in prison, fine up to $10,000
Class B felony: five to fifteen years in prison
Class A felony: ten to thirty years in prison, or life

Repeat Offender Enhancement

A defendant with three or more prior stealing-related convictions from three separate occasions, all within ten years of the current offense, is charged with a Class E felony even when the current theft would otherwise be a misdemeanor. Someone caught taking a $30 item can be charged with a felony on this basis. The ten-year window is measured from the date each prior offense occurred to the date of the current offense, not from conviction dates. Qualifying priors include stealing, robbery, burglary, and other stealing-related crimes.¹

The parallel enhancement for vehicle theft — two prior stealing-related convictions in ten years — pushes a motor vehicle, watercraft, or aircraft theft to a Class B felony, as noted above.

Restitution

Missouri courts can order a defendant to pay restitution to the victim, but the statute leaves that decision to the judge rather than making it automatic. When restitution is ordered, it is paid through the prosecuting attorney’s office, and the defendant pays an administrative handling fee on top of the restitution amount. Failing to pay court-ordered restitution can lead to revocation of probation or parole, and the restitution order does not stop the victim from filing a separate civil suit.³

Expungement

A conviction under 570.030 may be eligible for expungement. The waiting period is one year after completing the sentence for a misdemeanor and three years for a felony. Missouri caps lifetime expungements at two felonies and three misdemeanors. Any Class A felony is categorically excluded, and several other theft-related sections of Missouri law (including 570.025 merchandising theft, 570.090 financial exploitation of the elderly, and 570.180 in some circumstances) cannot be expunged. A standard 570.030 conviction that is not a Class A felony and does not fall under an excluded section can be expunged once the waiting period is met.⁴

Immigration Consequences

For non-citizens, a 570.030 conviction can outweigh the criminal sentence itself. Theft is widely treated as a crime involving moral turpitude under federal immigration law, which can make a non-citizen deportable if the conviction occurs within five years of admission and the offense carries a potential sentence of more than one year.⁵

A theft conviction can also be an “aggravated felony” under immigration law if the court imposes a sentence of one year or longer, even when that sentence is suspended and never actually served. An aggravated felony generally bars most forms of immigration relief and makes removal nearly automatic.⁶

Because any Missouri stealing charge at the Class A misdemeanor level or above carries a potential sentence exceeding six months, non-citizens should treat even low-level cases as high-stakes matters and bring immigration counsel in from the start.

Employment Consequences

A theft conviction reaches beyond the criminal case. Under Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, anyone convicted of a crime involving dishonesty or breach of trust is generally prohibited from working at an FDIC-insured bank or financial institution without written consent from the FDIC. A limited exemption exists for certain minor offenses, but most felony-level stealing convictions will not qualify.⁷

Missouri also requires background checks for many professional licenses. A stealing conviction can affect eligibility in fields such as healthcare, education, law enforcement, and financial services, with the specific impact varying by licensing board and offense severity.

1
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 570.030 – Stealing — Penalties
2
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 558.011 – Sentence of Imprisonment, Terms — Conditional Release
3
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 559.100 – Restitution
4
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 610.140 – Expungement
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S. Code 1227 – Deportable Aliens
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1101 – Definitions
7
eCFR. Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act – Consent To Service of Persons Convicted of Certain Criminal Offenses