Unauthorized removal of property by a family member

[DesdemonaEmrys]

I'm sorry if this isn't the proper forum for this subject. Wasn't sure what category this would fall into.

I just learned on Aug. 10th that my sister and her husband and son took an antique marble-top table from my home in late June this year without my knowledge or permission.

My home is located in Ohio but I am residing in Maryland with another sister and her family due to health problems. One of my neices and her family are living in my house in Ohio. The weekend of June 27-28, 2009, she had a birthday party for her 2 young children, inviting family in from Pennsylvania. As my sister from Pennsylvania was preparing to leave she told her husband and son to load the table into their vehicle. My neice tried to stop her and was told " You cannot stop me". My sister told the neice she would call me and tell me, she never did this knowing I would be angry about it.

I spoke this evening to my sister and told her to return the table to my home and she had one (1) month to do so. I also told her that the table is to be intact and undamaged and that she has to contact my neice to set up a time to return it. I stipulated the time arrangement because knowing my sister and her family they would drive by and dump it on the lawn. She became angry, called me some not so nice names and hung up on me.

My neice did not contact me due my health. She did not wish to make things worse for me. I called her for her birthday and could tell something was wrong and got her to spill the story out.

My question is : Is this truly considered theft and if the table is not returned as I stated, can I get the police involved ?

[justalayman]

yes, it is theft but due to the time line, the authorities may not get all excited about prosecuting.

So, what you do:

call the police (local to the crime) and report it. You should get a sense of what they are going to do by answers such as:

we'll have her in jail by the night

or

this looks more like a civil issue. I don't know if the DA will even consider prosecuting for this.


In either case, you can sue, in civil court.

[DesdemonaEmrys]

Thank you for your reply. I will be checking into the civil route.