This law just passed the house and will most likely be law soon. I was reading some stories of people who accidentally scanned a different item twice at a self check out and if the employee is having a bad day, it can go bad really fast.

Another story of a person going into the gas station to ask for gas, the employee messes up and gives more gas than asked for. Its possible for the employee, in order to not piss off the boss or have to pay out of pocket, to say the gas was stolen.

There's a lot of scenarios where something small can turn into a big issue.

I don't know if this takes into the consideration of how severe the crime is and if it applies retroactively. I read somewhere that there's a petty exception that allows for a one time exemption, I'm not too sure on that. If someone that has more experience in legal text, they can provide better information.