Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I don't know how it works where you are, but in the UK at least, stolen property still belongs to the original owner even if someone's bought it in good faith.
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Harry,
It is exactly the same here. In fact over on POTN (
http://www.photography-on-the.net) we had a situation where a young firefighter, as I recall in the military, bought a rather expensive Canon lense at a fair but not suspicious price. Then out of the blue, I forget the exact confluence of events but he was contacted by the police in the state & city where it had been stolen from requiring he return the lense, at his expense. He had no legal leg to stand on because it was indeed stolen. He was not complaining but rather posting so others need to make sure they know the source when buying used gear...he is young had a new baby on the way and had been saving for almost 2-yrs for the lense and wanted to for the new baby, their first....he spent nearly $2000 for it...so guess what? We all got together, made a deal with Helen Oster at Adorama and they offered to sell it to us at pretty much their cost...well, we raised far more cash than expected so because they guy did the right thing and was also a super nice member of the forum, we were able to raise the funds as a group, in ONE DAY and get him the newest version of the lense, nearly a $3000 piece of glass...it was a FUN thing to do. It was a wonderful thing to see a group come together to help someone out who really did the right thing. Too often in this world people who do the right thing are PUNISHED in some way, I see it here all the time.
But it happens, we all trust people and get screwed more than once in life...but it helps to remember people are basically good and honest so as long as we do the right thing, it will always come back to us in spades....
There is no such thing as "finder's keeper's" on the legal books...if you find something you are required to hand it over to the police (remember the infamous "found" Kindle at an airport and the OP needed to ask if he could keep the thing?) then if nobody ever claims it in specific period of time, then it's yours and the cops will return it to you.
I think it's awful to get cheated when buying a used item...and it's not like the price was too good to be true...but it happens. Do the right thing, and use it as a way to help others avoid the same thing happening.
I have been in the antiques business since I was 7-yrs old, so 43yrs and it happens...but usually you can tell if something might be hot. I once had a potential customer offer to trade me a stack of seven $20 Gold Eagle coins for a bedroom set I was selling...at the time the coins were worth around $6000ish and the bedroom set was only $5200...I politely declined, notified the police as it just did not feel right...turned out, the coins were hot and I saved myself a huge headache once she was busted by the cops...