Legality of Purchasing Stolen Goods unknowingly
 

I always wonder, what could happen to a purchaser who (unknowingly) brought a stolen item from someone.

For example, if I were to go on Craiglist, meet up with a seller and purchase a set of rims or a guitar from him, then later, the item turned out to be stolen.
(For example, the original owner spotted your car with his stolen rims and calls the cops) What would or could happen to the buyer?

He purchased the item from a legitimate transaction, and paid cash for it.
So my main questions:
1) Does the buyer get to keep the stolen item? (My guess is probably no..lol)
2) Could the purchaser get into trouble…i.e. charged with possession of stolen property…etc?


*I searched the forum, but couldn't find anything in the first 2 page.

It would not be a legitimate transaction as the seller never legally possessed/owned it.

Correct. The items are stolen property and would be seized as such.

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/showdoc...:l_IX-gb:s_354
Having a suspicion that the property you're about to buy might be a sign to pass up the "deal". Depending on the situation, someone crafty enough might be able to get a Report to Crown Counsel for charges approved.

It would come down to a "reasonable man" situation. Would a reasonable man think that a set of rims worth $3000 were being legitimately sold for $250...or $500? . If the deal was "too good to be true", then it was. They would also look at the total circumstances to see if you should have known. Eg...ATV with vin missing, no bill of sale, seller didn't give a receipt, you bought it in a bar, at midnite, from the trunk of a car...you know the stuff. The old story about never buying a TV from a guy out of breath, or expecting warranty coverage on anything sold from the trunk of a 73 chevvy...is true. When caught, you loose the stolen property, you loose what you paid and cold be charged with receiving stolen property as well. When considering a purchase from "Midnite Auto", keep in mind that they could be selling your rims next time to someone else.

True story: friend of mine once bought a small "used" drum machine from a local, reputable music store. Couple years later, he decided he didn't need it anymore, so he took it to a pawn shop (this was WAY before Craigslist). The shop dutifully ran the serial number... and a few minutes later, my buddy found himself surrounded by cops. Turns out, yep... the thing was listed as stolen (didn't help that buddy's a big scary-looking native guy!)

FORTUNATELY, he still had his original receipt from the music store, and even had it with him, so he was spared a ride "downtown".

Funny thing, too... years later, he was coming from working downtown to meet up with us at the old Knight & Day in Richmond (this was at about 3am), and went through a road check on the way... cop looked in the window at him, and the first words out of his mouth were, "What did I arrest you for?" Turns out it was one of the same cops that attended at that stolen-drum-machine call. :D

it's called buyer beware, if item is stolen, it will get confiscated.

once I was selling some of my old rims at chevron and the cops came by ant though they were stolen. but I had serial numbers engraved on them and the original receipt.

didn't help that it was like 1AM and we were kinda lurking in the corner of the parking lot :D

So, I guess the real victim here is the buyer who got scammed. I doubt he gets his money back.......

The "Real" victim is the householder who has to live with the thoughts that somebody broke into their personal space and stole from them. Ask your gf/wife if THAT would bother them. They are also victimized because they get hit for the insurance deductable.
The other policy holders who have their rates go up are also victims. The person who bought a "deal" is not a victim, they are an accessory after the fact to theft and posession of stolen property....unless they bought it from a pawn shop or some other legitimate store or under 100%legitimate circumstances..

the lesson here is if you're going to be in ANY of the above mentioned positions (namely seller(stealer)/unwitting purchaser/first owner (victim)...the one that seems the safest would be the one stealing :)