Is it legal to stick a note on something without permission?

[moonman239]

Or is that legally considered vandalism? I would imagine so. I ask this because I want to plaster "DO NOT BUY IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOURSELF AND CHILDREN" on any offending items at the store, such as bottles containing harmful chemicals (such as Roundup - I wish I could crumple Monsanto in my fist) or foods that may secretly have an impact on your health.

[Shaggy Hiker]

That's an interesting question. I would guess that the legality wouldn't really matter as it would be up to the store to prosecute, and they would want to avoid that as much as possible. On the other hand, I'd bet they'd be willing to threaten you a bit, regardless of whether they could back up what they are saying.

[techgnome]

When you're in the store, you're on private property... so it would be the store policy to either toss you out or call the police and to press charges or not. I doubt it would be vandalism, though since there is no property destruction... but it could be considered "distribution of printed materials" which could be against store policy.

-tg

[dbasnett]

Or is that legally considered vandalism? I would imagine so. I ask this because I want to plaster "DO NOT BUY IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOURSELF AND CHILDREN" on any offending items at the store, such as bottles containing harmful chemicals (such as Roundup - I wish I could crumple Monsanto in my fist) or foods that may secretly have an impact on your health.

Can I walk around behind you and take them down?

[honeybee]

If it's a yellow sticky note you are talking about, I doubt if that would be destruction of property. However if you are going to use a strong adhesive, you might face charges for defacing the products.

The question is, what is safe today? You will run out of notes before you run out of such items.

.

[FunkyDexter]

When I was eighteen my band played a gig at a local pub. My mate put some posters up for us in the local shopping centre, which was nice of him. The problem was he used some weird industrial strength adhesive that was all but impossible to remove. The shopping centre took the posters down but couldn't remove the adhesive. The police were called who contacted the pub to find out who we were. By the end of the day I was in the police station receiving a formal caution for vandalism (to my credit I didn't shop my mate and said I'd put them up myself).

I can say with absolute authority that yes, under certain circumstances, it is illegal to stick a note on something without permission.