The North Carolina House passed House Bill 315, which creates a new offense for entering portions of buildings not open to the public with intent to commit an unlawful act and adds detailed offenses and tiered penalties for gift-card theft and related conspiracies. The bill passed its third reading after unanimous floor votes recorded by the clerk.

Representative Pirtle, the floor sponsor, described the new unlawful-entry offense and said the bill responds to emerging retail crimes. He explained the gift-card provisions in detail: acquiring or retaining gift-card data without consent, obtaining gift-card information by fraudulent means, and tampering with gift cards or packaging with intent to defraud. Penalties scale from class 1 misdemeanors to felonies depending on value and aggregations over 90-day periods.

Representative Bott (Charlotte) emphasized the size and organization of the problem of gift-card theft, saying organized groups steal large numbers of cards and extract data to redeem value before legitimate purchasers can use them. Bott told the chamber, “Tens of millions of dollars in organized crime,” describing the theft pattern and urging support for the legislation.

The bill includes civil remedies and aligns the new offenses with retail-theft statutes. The clerk recorded the vote as 112 in the affirmative and none in the negative for second and third readings; the bill will be sent to the Senate.