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Can You Report a Theft if You've Already Recovered Your Property

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  • 02-10-2017, 12:37 AM
    Dustoff1
    Can You Report a Theft if You've Already Recovered Your Property
    My question involves criminal law for the state of: CA. Forgive me if this is the wrong forum, it seemed the most relevant.

    My daughter and her housemates found approximately $1200 worth of their property in their fourth housemate's room (each has her own room) . Not really thinking ahead, she recovered her items with her other two roommates present, though they did video what they found and recovered as they went.

    After discussion with many persons over 2 days, she decided she should press charges. However, the police officer stated that he was unable to do anything at this point because the items were no longer in the roommates possession, and declined to take a report.

    Is this normally the case, or should she continue to pursue trying to file charges? It sort of feels like "no harm no foul". She feels somewhat betrayed by the system, and she's trapped (by lease) in a house with a known if not legally proven thief who basically "got away with it".
  • 02-10-2017, 01:13 AM
    Taxing Matters
    Re: Filing Police Report if Stolen Property Has Already Been Recovered
    She can ask the District Attorney’s (DA’s) office about pursuing charges for the alleged theft. It is ultimately the DA as the prosecutor who decides what charges are filed. If the DA declines to prosecute then she has her answer. Your daughter needs to understand that the DA and police have limited resources so that while a theft may have been committed here, if there was no loss from the theft prior to reporting it they may well decide that their resources are better spent pursuing cases where people have been harmed by the crime. Your daughter is not owed anything by the DA. Now that she knows the housemate might be a thief, she ought to ensure proper security for her stuff so that the housemate won’t take them again.
  • 02-10-2017, 02:13 AM
    cdwjava
    Re: Filing Police Report if Stolen Property Has Already Been Recovered
    Details could be important here. The nature of the property, where it had been, how it had been taken, and why, can all play a part in the issue. And since the owners of the property retrieved it and apparently decided - at least initially - that it was not worth reporting, the police may have seen this as a civil matter now.

    She can contact the agency and ask to speak with a supervisor and ask that they take a report for the theft of the property. However, keep in mind that in many CA counties, property crimes are given low to no priority right now due to a lack of resources. But, she can still ask for a report to be taken and ask that it be forwarded to the DA with a request for charges. However, she cannot compel the police to take a report nor compel the DA to pursue criminal charges.

    And if the $1,200 in property was divided up among the roommates with no one roommate losing more than $950, these would be multiple petty thefts (low grade misdemeanors) and not pursued at all in some counties.

    Perhaps your daughter should speak to the landlord about eviction?
  • 02-10-2017, 03:25 PM
    Dustoff1
    Re: Filing Police Report if Stolen Property Has Already Been Recovered
    Thanks for the replies, guys.

    The items are a mix of clothing and electronics. All appear to have been taken from her room over the course of a few months. She dug up receipts and totalled to about $1250 for her items alone, with her other two roomies in the $200-300 range. As mentioned, she has receipts and photos her with or wearing the items prior to the theft. There are some things still missing, such as a pair of Beats headphones, that weren't in the room so she didn't include them in the total. In addition, other things have gone missing from common areas of the house like birthday cards with money and bottles of wine (some roomies are 21.) No fingers being pointed on those as there's no evidence one way or another. To you or I, the dollar amount isn't much but to a relatively poor college student it's a fairly significant amount of her net worth, on top of the violation.

    The two days was not so much deciding to not report as not knowing what her options were and what she should do. The girls are all 20/21-year old college students and sorority sisters sharing a house, having lived in the dorm the prior year. It took a day to talk to some retired police officer friends who encouraged her to make the report. I don't think she feels anyone, PD or DA, "owes" her anything. She definitely feels like she took a large, irrevocable step by attempting to report a former friend and sorority sister to the police, and to have that report declined made her question why she went out on that limb, especially if the roomie retaliates in some manner. The roomie is definitely a vindictive type as has been seen with other relationships over the past 8 months.

    Thanks for the suggestion to go to the DA - I'll see if she's up for that. As you might imagine, she's feeling a bit gun-shy now. She and her other two roomies have also contacted the landlord to see if he can be convinced to pursue an eviction, though to be honest I don't see where he has any upside to doing that and considerable risk and expense if the roomie fights back. And all have locks on their doors now, though they no longer feel they can leave things in the common areas of the house.

    Again, thanks for the thoughts and comments guys. I was just very surprised that the officer declined to even take the report. I do understand the priority issues, though, living as I do in San Jose which has many problems with low staffing levels.

    Cheers,
    Jim
  • 02-10-2017, 11:07 PM
    cdwjava
    Re: Filing Police Report if Stolen Property Has Already Been Recovered
    Part of the problem is going to be that she did not even know the items are missing.

    As a note, the DA is not going to take the case independently. They will punt it back to the local agency. The local agency may, or may not, decide to take a report the second tiem around. As I mentioned, there is no requirement that the police take a report, and no further requirement that the DA file it even if they receive it from the police.

    And San Jose is one of those cities where property crimes have been relegated to the very back burner.
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