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Possession of stolen property.
Pariah | 12:49 AM on 12.03.2007 18 comments


This blog will address the problems of working in any store that accepts trades of games/dvs for cash and determining the legality of knowingly accepting stolen items.

Today, about an hour before we close, a woman brings in a garbage bag full of games and dvds. She wished to trade for cash. As we go through the stacks of items it is apparent immediately that they are all multiple copies of just a few titles. 6 copies of Bomberman DS...really? They are all opened (she has done this before.)

Now I never claim to be the most intelligent person in the world, that however does not make me an idiot. They are obviously stolen. They are all games for under $20 dollars that walmart/target just tosses in dump bins this time of year.

Now we could have processed all items, but should we really sit on 4 copies of M&M's: Break Em DS? 6 copies of Bomberman?! This time of year with so many people in the store, I really don't want to make a scene. We inform her that we will take one of each, that is all. Meanwhile she gets into a argument with another customer who is offering her $20 dollars for one each of the PS2 games she had.

This brings up a few points. To me it is obvious that the items are stolen. If I knowingly accept stolen goods, I could potentially be charged with a misdemeanor offense. Secondly, if I decline the transaction, a reason would be asked of me. If I claim I believe them to be stolen, I could be sued for libel if I am wrong.

On the opposite side of the coin for a moment, still on topic. I was contacted by someone via telephone that they are the police and are asking for the ID information of someone who traded items in. I look up the information, find it and I am ready to divulge it to the authorities. I ask if I could call them back and to give me their extension to prove it was the police, and not just someone testing to see if we give out the aforementioned parties liscence information or I could give it out to an officer if they stopped in and presented ID. I was put on hold and transferred to someone else who began screaming at me and threatening to arrest me for hindering a police investigation, withholding evidence and willfully accepting stolen goods. Color me shocked, but not without resources. My response? "I dare you to come down arrest me. I made viable claim to ensure our customers privacy from non authority individuals, if you attempt to arrest me for that, I will contact my lawyer and sue the city faster than you can say false arrest and wrongful imprisonment, let me speak with your supervisor." They did send an officer, who was very apologetic about the phone conversation. I surrendered the information and the bad guy got busted. Good times, almost as much fun as the 2 times I was involved in dealing with the secret service. But that is a tale for another day.



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17 comments | showing # 1 to 17

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DarthFredd's Destructoid Blog
Fuck, destructoid just ate my comment. Summary: You made the right choice, from your point of view. Speaking to either your super or the law would just fuck you up six ways to monday.
ShadowXOR's Destructoid Blog
Great story...I'd love to hear the stuff about the Secret Service.
sleepingagain's Destructoid Blog
it might be one of the most frustrating things about working retail, the fact that i deal wiht people stealing things constantly and the fuckedup things they do
Rider Chop's Destructoid Blog
wait... somebody comes in with a bag of multiple copies of games, theyre opened, you have a strong hunch these games were stolen and Im assuming they dont have a receipt?

umm, tell them tough shit? no receipt no return, unless there is some magic rule I dont know about
Necros's Destructoid Blog
@ Rider Chop
I assume that the bag of stolen games was from some place like Walmart, and they were attempting to sell them at a Gamestop.
IvoryShipping's Destructoid Blog
Nice.

This blog gets an A.
Mxyzptlk's Destructoid Blog
Wow, way to handle the po-po!
electristan's Destructoid Blog
crazy how one has to think about all these legal things. if someone came in to me with a bag full of games id say sorry i cant take these, and explain why. if the person was inocent they would understand why, they wouldnt be happy, but understand why. how can you be sued for doing what you think, and what is, obviously right? you did make a good comprimizee though, high five :)
liam2015's Destructoid Blog
That must've been pretty damn empoering, good job
Big Z's Destructoid Blog
What state do you live in, Pariah? I have the misfortune to be living in Florida right now and a lot of high schoolers acknowledge that we're not far off from being a virtual police state. There's always helicopters overhead somewhere, the police can treat you like shit, etc.
Big Z's Destructoid Blog
A little Wiki research informs me that a police state requires the law enforcement officials to operate outside the boundaries of the law. In reality the laws have just been written to allow the police to push minors around, so by strict definition I suppose I'd be wrong to say Florida is approaching the level of police state. A little reform wouldn't hurt though.
DarthFredd's Destructoid Blog
I talked to a couple of my profs today. Pariah, you are criminally liable for knowingly accepting stolen property, even though your employer didn't have checks/procedures in place to prevent it and you're just doing your job. You would not have been civilly liable for denying the sale, either. That said, I still would have done exactly what you did.
MechaMonkey's Destructoid Blog
Fighting the law and fighting the crime at the same time? Well played, sir.
Spectral's Destructoid Blog
Since I work at Toysrus, we get people who come into our store all the time with garbage bags. However I always talk to them and they get uneasy and they leave the store without (hopefully) taking anything.

I don't understand what people's motives are for stealing.
kellyrawr's Destructoid Blog
Oh, the joys of working in such places. In my store, we have a special list behind the counter of names that we won't accept trade-ins from. I don't think we're technically supposed to have that, but it helps the associates who don't recognize faces.

And speaking of stolen goods, have you ever had a manager leave a stolen system up with the rest of the used systems? Yeah. Glad I didn't sell it myself, but I wish I could've seen the argument between my manager and the person who sold it.
John001's Destructoid Blog
Hi,
If someone came in to me with a bag full of games id say sorry i cant take these.

===============================
John
<a href="http://www.fastrealestate.net">FSBO</a>


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