Can You Be Charged With Theft for Selling Your Ex's Property

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Quoting jk

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Of course you are assuming the dispatcher will support the op's claim the dispatcher told them they could get rid of it. Unless the call was recorded and the recording available I suspect the dispatcher will deny ever giving such advice.

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Well, it may very well vary from PD to PD but it has always been my understanding that all dispatch calls are taped.

Your correct, I cant.. he left me with an 11 month old baby & a duplex that i cannot afford. But that is not why i sold the ps4, i just cant give him the money because i already spent the money on rent. Trust me if i had money to give him i would, that would make him drop whatever charges hes trying to charge me with!

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Quoting llworking

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Well, it may very well vary from PD to PD but it has always been my understanding that all dispatch calls are taped.

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The call was recorded & it is available so a police officer said i cant really be blamed for the dispatcher telling me i could sell it.. but he also said that it would be up to the prosecutor if my ex really does take this to court. So i guess we will see..

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Quoting Kam0526

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Your correct, I cant.. he left me with an 11 month old baby & a duplex that i cannot afford. But that is not why i sold the ps4, i just cant give him the money because i already spent the money on rent. Trust me if i had money to give him i would, that would make him drop whatever charges hes trying to charge me with!

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You know how that comes across to me? Revenge. Pure and simple. Whether that's actually the case or not doesn't really matter - it comes across as you sold his stuff because he dumped you.

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Quoting Kam0526

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Your correct, I cant.. he left me with an 11 month old baby & a duplex that i cannot afford. But that is not why i sold the ps4, i just cant give him the money because i already spent the money on rent. Trust me if i had money to give him i would, that would make him drop whatever charges hes trying to charge me with!

The call was recorded & it is available so a police officer said i cant really be blamed for the dispatcher telling me i could sell it.. but he also said that it would be up to the prosecutor if my ex really does take this to court. So i guess we will see..

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So you've heard the recording? And it has the dispatcher very clearly telling you you can sell your former boyfriends property?

Not only is it highly unlikely the dispatcher gave you legal advice, it's highly unlikely they said you could sell property that belongs to another person without their permission. If either of those things happened, the dispatcher should be fired.
It's not up to your boyfriend to "take this to court". Your boyfriend can report the incident to the police. The police will send their report to the prosecutor and the prosecutor will decide whether to prosecute this. If boyfriend has made the report, it's out of his hands now.

Have you sought child support payments from the father? Are you on welfare?

is the father on the birth certificate or even been determined to be the father?

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Quoting llworking

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She had no right to sell it because she did not follow the proper procedures. However, you are incorrect that a landlord has to inventory property until the tenant says that they do not want it anymore. The landlord has to follow the procedures under state law, to have the property considered to be abandoned, but those procedures do not require the tenant to actively say that they no longer want the property.



I am not betting on it, but it seems unlikely if the police report is thorough.

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That is what I read in some links I found looking this up.

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Quoting Dogmatique

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You know how that comes across to me? Revenge. Pure and simple. Whether that's actually the case or not doesn't really matter - it comes across as you sold his stuff because he dumped you.

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Lol no I LEFT HIM in march. I moved out of the duplex (the lease is in my name) so when he decided he didn't wanna live here anymore, i moved back in. It was not revenge, if it was revenge, i would of sold it along time ago.

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Quoting jk

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So you've heard the recording? And it has the dispatcher very clearly telling you you can sell your former boyfriends property?

Not only is it highly unlikely the dispatcher gave you legal advice, it's highly unlikely they said you could sell property that belongs to another person without their permission. If either of those things happened, the dispatcher should be fired.
It's not up to your boyfriend to "take this to court". Your boyfriend can report the incident to the police. The police will send their report to the prosecutor and the prosecutor will decide whether to prosecute this. If boyfriend has made the report, it's out of his hands now.

Have you sought child support payments from the father? Are you on welfare?

is the father on the birth certificate or even been determined to be the father?

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I talked to the police officer today & asked his if the calls are recorded, he said yes & he said the chief has access to the recordings. So he told me he was going to get access to it and call me sunday which is tomorrow, to let me know what's going on. He said if the recording provesthat the dispatcher clearly told me i could sell it, then i can't really be blamed. So im not sure if they are even going to question the dispatcher because your right, she could easily lie. & im not sure how all that court stuff works, i just know that the cops told him he could write a police report & the prosecutor will decide if i get charged (so i assumed i would be taken to court) thank you fit informing me on that though.

Yes i will be getting child suport payments starting on the 1st of august, yes he is on the birth certificate & yes he is the father. What does that have to do with anything?

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Quoting Kam0526

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Lol no I LEFT HIM in march. I moved out of the duplex (the lease is in my name) so when he decided he didn't wanna live here anymore, i moved back in. It was not revenge, if it was revenge, i would of sold it along time ago.



I talked to the police officer today & asked his if the calls are recorded, he said yes & he said the chief has access to the recordings. So he told me he was going to get access to it and call me sunday which is tomorrow, to let me know what's going on. He said if the recording provesthat the dispatcher clearly told me i could sell it, then i can't really be blamed. So im not sure if they are even going to question the dispatcher because your right, she could easily lie. & im not sure how all that court stuff works, i just know that the cops told him he could write a police report & the prosecutor will decide if i get charged (so i assumed i would be taken to court) thank you fit informing me on that though.

Yes i will be getting child suport payments starting on the 1st of august, yes he is on the birth certificate & yes he is the father. What does that have to do with anything?

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And with that, your credibility just went down the drain.

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Quoting Dogmatique

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And with that, your credibility just went down the drain.

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What do you mean by "your credibility just went down the drain"..?

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Quoting llworking

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While I do not necessarily disagree with the previous response you received, there is decent chance that the DA won't be interested in prosecuting this one, assuming that the police report is thorough.

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Frankly, I don't see this being prosecuted. I see a DA telling the ex to take the matter to Small Claims court. This case has reasonable doubt (for the intent to deprive as required for larceny) written all over it.

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Quoting Kam0526

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What do you mean by "your credibility just went down the drain"..?

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I think she is inferring that your coincidental contact with the officer in question and the revelation that a recording exists is a little too fortuitous. However, I can see what you said as being the truth as I have been in just that position a few times in my career (as the officer or chief).

Personally, I don't think that a prosecutor is going to want to go to a jury trial with this sort of thing. Unless prosecutors are bloated with staffing and time I would wager that they will punt and decline to pursue the matter suggesting that the ex go to small claims court where the burden of proof is lower. I'd say that the state may have a hard time proving that you intended to deprive him of the property especially when they are smallish items that he could have taken with him when he left, you made several attempts over a month or two to get him to come back for them,and he never once responded. I'd see his filing of charges as HIS exercising sour grapes and "revenge" against you. If he really wanted those things, he would have taken them! Heck, when my #3 son left home, his video game console was the first thing he packed!

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Quoting cdwjava

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Frankly, I don't see this being prosecuted. I see a DA telling the ex to take the matter to Small Claims court. This case has reasonable doubt (for the intent to deprive as required for larceny) written all over it.



I think she is inferring that your coincidental contact with the officer in question and the revelation that a recording exists is a little too fortuitous. However, I can see what you said as being the truth as I have been in just that position a few times in my career (as the officer or chief).

Personally, I don't think that a prosecutor is going to want to go to a jury trial with this sort of thing. Unless prosecutors are bloated with staffing and time I would wager that they will punt and decline to pursue the matter suggesting that the ex go to small claims court where the burden of proof is lower. I'd say that the state may have a hard time proving that you intended to deprive him of the property especially when they are smallish items that he could have taken with him when he left, you made several attempts over a month or two to get him to come back for them,and he never once responded. I'd see his filing of charges as HIS exercising sour grapes and "revenge" against you. If he really wanted those things, he would have taken them! Heck, when my #3 son left home, his video game console was the first thing he packed!

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Well at least someone on here believes me! Thank you. After this officer calls me tomorrow, i will post on here what he says about the recording & whatever else he wants to talk to me about. This is just one big confusing mess & i honestly think the police officers didn't even know how to handle it. Thats why he said he would look into everything & contact me on sunday. I understand selling the ps4 was not a nice thing to do. . But when you are bugging someone to get it and they don't & then you have a dispatcher tell you that your allowed to sell it (if it has been 2 days since the last time i told him to come get it) then what would you have done? I was under the impression that i could not get in trouble & he obviously didn't care enough about it to come get it so why just let it sit in my living room for months? If i get chargedor fined or whatever, i will fully understand & proudly do whatever i have to do. But i just wish people could see my point of view, i mean the dispatcher even put me on hold to ask an officer that was in the station (at least that's what she said she was putting me on hold for) so if that's the truth then not only did she say it was okay, but a cop did as well. If i would of known a dispatcher & an officer is not entitled to find out advice like they did, i would have never called them in the first place. The ps4 would still be in my living room.