Until recently I had preston as a follower so I avoided stealing because he disliked it. Now I have Deacon as a follower and wouldn't mind stealing some. However, someting weird is happening. Whenever I steal something while having a follower everyone turns hostile even if I am completely hidden. For example, If I am completely hidden and out of sight of anyone but my follower is still visable then everyone turns hostile if I steal. I tried moving my follower away and telling him to wait away from me, but even if my follower is not near me it still happens. I tried dismissing him and stealing, but I still couldnt safely steal until he had fully left the area. The only way I can keep a follower and steal now is to have them go wait somewhere completely out of view. This is sorta annoying because I am a stealth character and would like to be able to steal without having to go put my follower in a closet somewhere. It didn't do this at the start of the game when I had cait as a follower, so I don't know why it is happening. Also, I have all chameleon shadowed armor, so the glitch may be related to that too.

Get Strong, he actually likes it when you steal.

Cait seems to be okay with it for me.

You seem to have misunderstood my issue. My follower has no problem with me stealing. The issue is that if I have a follower when I steal, then everyone in town attacks me even if I was hidden. The only way I have been able to avoid this is to by putting my follower in a room somewere where no one can see him while I steal. Basically, even if I am completely hidden I will still get caught if my follower is not completely hidden.

Ahh, the old crime reporting issue. Remember when killing someone in Skyrim would give you a bounty if a chicken saw it?

It works fine when I dont have a follower but for some reason the game thinks both me and my follower need to be hidden, but followers are usually dumb and wont hide properly.

Either that, or you follower is the one reporting your crimes to the townsfolk. Have you ever successfully stolen with your follower hidden as well or is every crime being reported currently?

Have you tried switching followers yet? Have you tried getting Cait back? Have you tried without that chameleon armor (I know it's a bit bugged wrt the pip boy).

When in crouch/sneak mode, draw your weapon, and your follower will stick to you like glue. If you're hidden, maybe if they're close, they'll be more likely to be hidden too. Also, give them some kind of shadow armor, maybe that will help with their hidden status.