Legal Question in Criminal Law in Florida

Return of property by police

My fiance, LP, is suspected of cheating someone out of $3,000 on Ebay. A fake ad listed him as the seller of a motorcycle but the person who contacted the buyer used another name. The victim paid by moneygram and never got the bike. Our local police questioned LP and asked for our computers in order to search the hard drives. LP is 59 years old with PTSD and was medicated and confused at the time. He was threatened with arrest and was told that the computers would be sent out the next day and returned in 1 week. LP voluntarily surrendered our computers. I located our monthly Ebay invoice for the time in question and it shows charges for listing the bike but it also shows credits for those charges so the total invoice is for only $1.15. Ebay had contacted LP about a suspected fake ad for a bike months ago, he told them he did not place it, Ebay removed it & credited our account. LP took the invoice to the police station, told them that Ebay would not have credited our account if the ad had been legit since listing charges are nonrefundable. He saw that our computers are still sitting in the office. Since we have provided them with evidence from Ebay that clears him are we entitled to have our computers returned to us?


Asked on 4/20/07, 1:11 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Robert M. Perez Law Office of Robert M. Perez, State and Federal Criminal Defense

Re: Return of property by police

You can file a motion in court for return of your fiancee's personal property if the coputers were attained by a search warrant signed a judge. If not, then you have to go through whatever procedures the police agency has for confiscated property taken during the course of an investigation.

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Answered on 4/20/07, 3:17 pm


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