Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

You can do both; however, the police may or may not be of any help. You can potentially sue them for conversion; meaning that they have take property you have the right to possess and are refusing to return the property. Your remedy may include recovering the property, the value of the property, and possibly your attorney's fees for having to sue them. You should visit an attorney in your area to further discuss your options.

To some extent, the right answer depends upon one or more of the following: (1) Is your husband out of custody now? (2) Are the two of you able to cooperate on legal efforts to get the property back? (3) How far away are the sisters' homes from yours, and from each other? (4) What excuses or justification do they offer for their behavior? and finally (5) What is the total dollar value of the property taken?

I too am not sure how interested the police would be. They have thin forces and lots of violent crime to worry about. They are likely to dismiss this situation as "a civil matter" for the relatives to work out (I'd say they'd be wrong, but what can you do at that point?).

Filing a complaint for conversion - the civil equivalent of the crime of theft, more or less - may be a viable alternative. It's very likely the mere filing and service of the suit would result in some kind of settlement offer, such as return of the property. However, in filing such a suit, you'd need to be mentally and financially prepared to litigate it to conclusion, if necessary.