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Bought Stolen Item Unknowingly

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Kurii

Junior Member
Location: Aransas Pass, Texas

Situation:
I own a metals recycling business where local people sell us their metals and we sell that to bigger companies. Let's say Person-A sold us something (that was claimed to be stolen from Person-B) for $150. We didn't know it was stolen! Person-B comes later and asks if we bought the thing that was stolen recently, and we show him the item. Person-B claims that it was his although he has no written proof like a receipt or serial number to match the item. But what he did do was bring friends as witnesses to say that it was his.

So we agree to give him the item but we're at a $150 loss. We asked him for $150 and he starts cussing and swearing at us, and saying it costed him over thousands of dollars etc. His son-in-law is a cop so he brought the police over too to make us hand him the item.

Person-A got caught and arrested since we had to make a copy of his information before buying the item. But he couldn't give us $150 since he didn't have any money. They said if we wanted the money back, we'd have to go to court and all that. Which requires court fees and all that which really isn't worth the $150.

So now we're at $150 loss. Person-A is arrested. And Person-B goes on as if nothing happened because he has friends/witnesses and the police on his side even though he doesn't have written evidence that the item was his. Is this right?
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
If you win, your judgement will include the court fees. Of course, COLLECTING from the thief might be difficult.

If the thief is prosecuted criminally, you could ask that restitution be ordered as part of his sentencing.
 

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