Re: Best Buy Treated Me Like a Thief

Article View: misc.consumers

Article #9354

#9354

From: David Chesler
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2006 01:08

34 lines
3543 bytes

John A. Weeks III wrote:
>                          The weight of facts in favor of
> the store owning the item is far greater than the weight of the
> facts of the perpetrator owning the item. 

  Possession is 9/10 of the law.  It is undisputed that OP had
the item when he was on the returns line.  There is no direct
evidence that the particular Best Buy ever had that item, although
it is reasonable that they had items like that item.

  Under the old common law what they did was not theft, although in
some cases it might be barritry, or consignment, or unlawful disposal
of goods lawfully obtained, or illegal conversion, all of which have
been crimes for a long time.  I don't know the statutes in MN, but
most likely all forms of taking what isn't yours are larceny.

  The police could get involved to keep the peace, but they are not
the final arbiters of what is and is not criminal.  That's what
lawyers go to law school for, and it is up to the local DA whether
or not to prosecute.  But if the cops insist it is not a criminal
matter, OP might have been tempted to retrieve his property through
whatever means were necessary, and when the cops came, tell them that
it is not their concern, because it is a civil matter.

>                                           As a result, the store
> should keep their item unless the perpetrator can prove otherwise.

  "Should" is interesting.  Is that "should" as in "will maximize their
profits, because they'll piss off some customers, only some of whom
will make a stink, but they'll catch more would-be thieves this way"?

-- 
   - David Chesler <chesler@post.harvard.edu>
     Iacta alea est

Technical Details

Message-ID: <cYOdnSNXmerXXiDenZ2dnUVZ_sydnZ2d@comcast.com>

Path:

arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!g2news1.google.com!news2.google.com!news4.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local01.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.comcast.com!news.comcast.com.POSTED!not-for-mail

References:

<RZguf.281$WY5.265@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net> <43b9b895$0$828$8046368a@newsreader.iphouse.net> <fi3lr1po2eqfesohsgsem3m9ckj8bom3vp@4ax.com> <43bb1aa0$0$813$8046368a@newsreader.iphouse.net> <dpjlr3$su@u1.netgate.net> <43bd9d83$0$815$8046368a@newsreader.iphouse.net> <slrndrr7n0.t5r.glg@ftupet.ftupet.com> <john-8DA08A.18490305012006@sn-ip.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net>

Show Full Headers

Complete Article Headers

X-Google-Thread: 107518,819a8a372102d669
X-Google-Thread: 10e835,a8473bea7e4a41f8
X-Google-Thread: f765b,a8473bea7e4a41f8
X-Google-Attributes: gid107518,gid10e835,gidf765b,public
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!g2news1.google.com!news2.google.com!news4.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local01.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.comcast.com!news.comcast.com.POSTED!not-for-mail
NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2006 19:09:30 -0600
Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2006 20:08:58 -0500
From: David Chesler <chesler@post.harvard.edu>
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 (Windows/20041206)
X-Accept-Language: en-us, en
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: misc.consumers,chi.general,mn.general
Subject: Re: Best Buy Treated Me Like a Thief
References: <RZguf.281$WY5.265@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net> <43b9b895$0$828$8046368a@newsreader.iphouse.net> <fi3lr1po2eqfesohsgsem3m9ckj8bom3vp@4ax.com> <43bb1aa0$0$813$8046368a@newsreader.iphouse.net> <dpjlr3$su@u1.netgate.net> <43bd9d83$0$815$8046368a@newsreader.iphouse.net> <slrndrr7n0.t5r.glg@ftupet.ftupet.com> <john-8DA08A.18490305012006@sn-ip.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net>
In-Reply-To: <john-8DA08A.18490305012006@sn-ip.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-ID: <cYOdnSNXmerXXiDenZ2dnUVZ_sydnZ2d@comcast.com>
Lines: 34
NNTP-Posting-Host: 66.30.105.154
X-Trace: sv3-KKj1mDkvTf0qRJUkbTMZYWFp8EBHs8V8xOkVbkBluUWvowACH4Gwc6XSVNiA4TbOw2Cze6bNCVckU3i!BItGZQYt2LpQUEioR1EicYoebFrM3mLe/AlDd2zZaJWceGUjS9nbsFrEb/qUFgg6IcTPY0SBkDDX!Es/KAk2UUBqG
X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net
X-DMCA-Complaints-To: dmca@comcast.net
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly
X-Postfilter: 1.3.32

Reply to Parent Message