Can I Get in Trouble for Selling Property I Stole Years Ago

My question involves criminal law for the state of: New York

Years ago I stole something from my job. It was clearly incredibly stupid and I seriously regret my youthful stupidity. It was my last day of employment and so I swiped the item. There were no cameras in the place and I received no correspondence from them for years. I ended up selling the stolen item to a store the day after I stole it. They checked my ID and made me sign a sales receipt since it was a used item.

I don't think they made a copy of my ID but it was so many years ago I can't recall if they didn't for certain. It was worth around one thousand dollars at the time but nowadays it would be worth like a hundred dollars. The other day I received one of those "Sorry we missed you" notes in my mailbox from that same employer sending me a certified letter. I seriously doubt it is because they owe me a paycheck. So, I am guessing they matched the serial number of the item and matched the seller (me) with the item and that I was one of their old employees. I am confused as to why it would have taken them years to connect those dots (if they did find out) .

So, all that being said, what would happen if I just never picked up the certified letter? Would I be arrested or something or can nothing be done unless I actually sign for the letter? How much trouble could I be in? Are we talking jail or lawsuit? I have no idea how the law works but I do feel really bad about it and would like to do the right thing but I am just curious about what kind of trouble I can be in for this. It was many years ago and I don't even live in NY anymore but the certified letter still found me. There is always the chance that it isn't anything bad but the chances of that are slim in my opinion.:disturbed:

So you sold stolen property. That is a recent crime.

I sold the property the day after I stole it. Both the stealing and the selling happened within the same 24 hour window which was multiple years ago. Would that still be considered recent? Personally, I have no idea what is considered recent. This happened over 5 years ago so I am not sure how the law categorizes something like that.

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I sold the property the day after I stole it. Both the stealing and the selling happened within the same 24 hour window which was multiple years ago. Would that still be considered recent? Personally, I have no idea what is considered recent. This happened over 5 years ago so I am not sure how the law categorizes something like that.

Depends on whether the crime would be a misdemeanor or a felony. Felony statute of limitations often go much longer than those for misdemeanors. What was the VALUE of the stolen item?

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Quoting cautionary

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I sold the property the day after I stole it. Both the stealing and the selling happened within the same 24 hour window which was multiple years ago. Would that still be considered recent? Personally, I have no idea what is considered recent. This happened over 5 years ago so I am not sure how the law categorizes something like that.

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I sold the property the day after I stole it. Both the stealing and the selling happened within the same 24 hour window which was multiple years ago. Would that still be considered recent? Personally, I have no idea what is considered recent. This happened over 5 years ago so I am not sure how the law categorizes something like that.

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Per this site:

http://research.lawyers.com/New-York...mitations.html

It looks like the maximum statute of limitations would be 5 years. So if this was truly over 5 years ago, then you would be ok. If it was less than a full 5 years, you would still have a potential problem.

However, there are some civil statutes of limitation that they might try to apply in your case that are 6 years, so you could still potentially be sued.