§ 14-398. Theft or destruction of property of public libraries, museums, etc. - North Carolina Statutes

§14‑398.  Theft or destruction of property of public libraries, museums,etc.

Any person who shall steal orunlawfully take or detain, or willfully or maliciously or wantonly write upon,cut, tear, deface, disfigure, soil, obliterate, break or destroy, or who shallsell 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 objectof art or curiosity deposited in a public library, gallery, museum, collection,fair or exhibition, or in any department or office of State or localgovernment, or in a library, gallery, museum, collection, or exhibition,belonging to any incorporated college or university, or any incorporatedinstitution devoted to educational, scientific, literary, artistic, historicalor 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 doneby writing upon, cutting, tearing, defacing, disfiguring, soiling,obliterating, breaking or destroying any such property, shall not exceed fiftydollars ($50.00), be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.  If the value of theproperty 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 sameshall be punished as a Class H felon. (1935, c. 300; 1943, c. 543;1979, c. 760, s. 5; 1979, 2nd Sess., c. 1316, s. 47; 1981, c. 63, s. 1, c. 179,s. 14; 1993, c. 539, s. 265; 1994, Ex. Sess., c. 24, s. 14(c).)