Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

personal property theft

Is it a crime to remove your personal

property from anothers residence w/o

them knowing?

after a breakup, where i was left

being owed $22,000, i chose to

reclaim (spitefully) all of the material

articles i had purchased for my

partner by removing them from his

fathers house, in the presence of his

father. months later, he unknowingly

(to me) took everything out of my

garage. is this theft? it's seems silly,

but i am curious.


Asked on 1/25/08, 10:57 pm

3 Answers from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

Re: personal property theft

Moving one's own property is not a crime, but entering someone else's garage without permission is.

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Answered on 1/26/08, 12:14 am
Jacek W. Lentz Law Offices of Jacek W. Lentz

Re: personal property theft

Removing things from your garage would be theft. Your boyfriend's defense would be that the things were rightfully his. Even if so, what he did was trespass at least.

You could file a police report and let the whole thing spiral out of control - do you really want that? Police would investigate making your boyfriend squirm a bit. Chances are at the end they would consider the whole thing a private civil matter and there would be no prosecution.

Jacek W. Lentz, Esq.

Los Angeles, CA

310.273.1361

www.lentzlawfirm.com

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Answered on 1/26/08, 12:57 pm
Allen Farshi Law Offices of Allen Farshi

Re: personal property theft

An unauthorized entry without more is criminal trespass, however the gifts were in her possession and thus legaly hers. Your conduct constitutes 1st degree burglary a felony. Call if you decide it's time to hire professional legal representation.

Good luck

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Answered on 1/27/08, 5:07 pm


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