Is it really a theft?

[ipayu]

Virginia is the state I am living in.I am currently living with my girlfriend and I am not on the lease. I am in the process of breaking up with her. I am going to leave everything I bought her except I want to take the computer I paid for. Can I remove this property from her apartment without being arrested?

 

[CdwJava]

Virginia is the state I am living in.I am currently living with my girlfriend and I am not on the lease. I am in the process of breaking up with her. I am going to leave everything I bought her except I want to take the computer I paid for. Can I remove this property from her apartment without being arrested?

CAN you be arrested? Sure. Will you be convicted? That's unknown.

If she calls the police and says you stole it, you can be arrested. If the computer was a gift to her, then it's hers. If it was yours, you have the receipts, and you can say you had sole access to it, then you can prevail. If she argues it's a shared item, you might consider buying her out of her half (of the current market value).

Remove it at your own risk. You know better than we do as to whether she will call the police on you for taking it. And have you thought to ask her?

- Carl

 

[fedcop110]

As carl said, if you have a receipt and can prove (in some way that I can not imagine) that the computer was not a gift and was in fact for your own use only, then go ahead and take the thing. I would suggest just getting another computer. It's not worth the headache if she does decide to file a complaint. Since you did not mention it, I assume that this isn't a case of a common law marriage and and as such it would not be considered communal property. From your post I assume that this is going to be a bad break up. Buy another computer (it won't be too long before you can get back on this site )