<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kefka:
a friend of mine is a suspect in some crimes that have been going on (such as broken car windows ect). A cop called his house and asked if he could come over to LOOK at his BB guns ect. When the cops arrived they looked around, but also TOOK the guns, and a sword (a sword store was broken into, go figure). Is that legal since they didn't have a warrent and didn't have permission to take the items. My friend only gave them permission to look at them. Please help, thanks.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
My response:
This issue is quite an old Constitutional issue. Your friend gave permission to enter, without a warrant, which waives certain privileges under the Fourth Amendment. In a nutshell, once the police see, in plain view, items which may be stolen property, or potentially used in a crime, they are allowed under the law to immediately seize the items for potential identification by the "rightful" owner and/or testing for purposes of determining whether such items may have been used in a crime. If the items are found not to be stolen, or not part of a crime, the police will return the same to your friend.
IAAL
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