6 ms·

It's got to be really frustrating, knowing where your laptop is but not being able to have the police get it. Any lawyers want to chime in on whether the owner

by ajju 15y ago

It's got to be really frustrating, knowing where your laptop is but not being able to have the police get it. Any lawyers want to chime in on whether the owner has a right to reclaim his property legally? May be if it is in plain sight in the public?

zmmmmm 15y ago
I was thinking that. If you rent some private security guards for an hour, show up at his door with overwhelming evidence that he has your stolen laptop, make a pony show for him about how he's 1 minute away from you handing it all over to the police and him getting arrested, but if he gives it back you'll cut him a break ... I think you'd probably get it back safely.
pavel_lishin 15y ago
If you steal it back, how would the original thief prove anything was taken?
- rdl 15y ago
  I think the issue is that other crimes might end up happening during the recovery of the macbook, such as assault, battery, discharge of firearms within city limits, theft of kidneys, abuse of rented power sanders, etc.
  - pavel_lishin 15y ago
    Now I kind of want to steal something of yours.
- ltamake 15y ago
  Usage.
ltamake 15y ago
I know, I would be tempted to just break in and crowbar the fker. And, of course, steal my MacBook back. ;P
Daniel_Newby 15y ago
"Any lawyers want to chime in on whether the owner has a right to reclaim his property legally?" Sure, it's just another repo. Get a court order, then hire the sheriff's office to enter the property and retrieve it. How do you think rent-to-own businesses work?
- M1573RMU74710N 15y ago
  In those cases presumably there's some sort of rental/lease agreement though, right? They can go to the Sherrif and say "This person signed a legal document stating I gave them X equipment with Y serial number. They have not returned/paid for it in the allotted time...come with me to their property; if we find it and they don't have another legal document signed by me stating otherwise, obviously they don't have the right to posses it". Isn't it a little different here? Here it's disputable who the property belongs to, and in what context this person has the property. Wouldn't a criminal charges of some kind have to be made instead of the process say, a car dealership goes through to repossess a car? Either charge the thief and recover it from them, or investigate the person for possessing stolen property and if it turns out to be stolen, then returning it to the rightful owner? Aren't repossession agents bound by some constraints as well? Is rent-a-center allowed to surreptitiously record it's customers in case they don't return stuff (without notifying them and/or getting a signed waiver?). I'm not a lawyer, and I'm just curious how all this stuff works legally.
  - Daniel_Newby 15y ago
    It's my understanding that you can take your purchase records to a court, file a complaint against an unnamed party, provide evidence about the current location of the property, and use that to get police intervention (for which the sheriff's department probably charges a fee). This process is needed because you owe the public a duty not to breach the peace, for instance, by breaking down a door and prying the property out of someone's hands. "Wouldn't a criminal charges of some kind have to be made instead of the process say, a car dealership goes through to repossess a car?" Unless you want vengeance, worry about getting the property back, not about the crime. Suppose the buyer of a bass boat dies while it is stored in a rented garage. No crime has been committed, but it will take a court order and a deputy with a bolt cutter for the repo man to get his hands on it. "Is rent-a-center allowed to surreptitiously record it's customers in case they don't return stuff (without notifying them and/or getting a signed waiver?)." No, that would violate the implied warranty of fitness for purpose of the merchandise.

by ajju 15y ago

zmmmmm 15y ago

I was thinking that. If you rent some private security guards for an hour, show up at his door with overwhelming evidence that he has your stolen laptop, make a pony show for him about how he's 1 minute away from you handing it all over to the police and him getting arrested, but if he gives it back you'll cut him a break ... I think you'd probably get it back safely.

pavel_lishin 15y ago

If you steal it back, how would the original thief prove anything was taken?

rdl 15y ago
I think the issue is that other crimes might end up happening during the recovery of the macbook, such as assault, battery, discharge of firearms within city limits, theft of kidneys, abuse of rented power sanders, etc.
- pavel_lishin 15y ago
  Now I kind of want to steal something of yours.
ltamake 15y ago
Usage.

ltamake 15y ago

I know, I would be tempted to just break in and crowbar the fker. And, of course, steal my MacBook back. ;P

Daniel_Newby 15y ago

"Any lawyers want to chime in on whether the owner has a right to reclaim his property legally?" Sure, it's just another repo. Get a court order, then hire the sheriff's office to enter the property and retrieve it. How do you think rent-to-own businesses work?

M1573RMU74710N 15y ago
In those cases presumably there's some sort of rental/lease agreement though, right? They can go to the Sherrif and say "This person signed a legal document stating I gave them X equipment with Y serial number. They have not returned/paid for it in the allotted time...come with me to their property; if we find it and they don't have another legal document signed by me stating otherwise, obviously they don't have the right to posses it". Isn't it a little different here? Here it's disputable who the property belongs to, and in what context this person has the property. Wouldn't a criminal charges of some kind have to be made instead of the process say, a car dealership goes through to repossess a car? Either charge the thief and recover it from them, or investigate the person for possessing stolen property and if it turns out to be stolen, then returning it to the rightful owner? Aren't repossession agents bound by some constraints as well? Is rent-a-center allowed to surreptitiously record it's customers in case they don't return stuff (without notifying them and/or getting a signed waiver?). I'm not a lawyer, and I'm just curious how all this stuff works legally.
- Daniel_Newby 15y ago
  It's my understanding that you can take your purchase records to a court, file a complaint against an unnamed party, provide evidence about the current location of the property, and use that to get police intervention (for which the sheriff's department probably charges a fee). This process is needed because you owe the public a duty not to breach the peace, for instance, by breaking down a door and prying the property out of someone's hands. "Wouldn't a criminal charges of some kind have to be made instead of the process say, a car dealership goes through to repossess a car?" Unless you want vengeance, worry about getting the property back, not about the crime. Suppose the buyer of a bass boat dies while it is stored in a rented garage. No crime has been committed, but it will take a court order and a deputy with a bolt cutter for the repo man to get his hands on it. "Is rent-a-center allowed to surreptitiously record it's customers in case they don't return stuff (without notifying them and/or getting a signed waiver?)." No, that would violate the implied warranty of fitness for purpose of the merchandise.