Legal Question in Administrative Law in Massachusetts
Recently there was a noise complain to my apartment and two cops showed up to investigate. They noticed that I had road signs decorating my apartment and confiscated them even though I told that I had bought them at a flea market over a year earlier. Because I don't have a receipt for these signs, they confiscated them and I am now being charged by my university for theft. Was it lawful for them to confiscate these signs in this situation? Also, these signs were purchased in New Jersey over a year ago, so I don't understand how they could accuse me of theft if there are no signs missing in this area that they could match up with the signs that were confiscated.
1 Answer from Attorneys
It sounds like you have something of a defense, since the police can't confirm that these signs were stolen. If there is something on the signs to identify where they came from, however, the police could conceivably do some detective work and confirm that they were stolen, and you could possibly be charged with receiving stolen property under that scenario. Regarding your question about the confiscation, however, I think that it was not lawful for the police to confiscate the signs without any concrete basis to confirm that the signs were stolen.
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