Legalities of stealing your own property back?

[Bradley1500]

What are the legalities of stealing your own property back?

Unfortunately my wheels were stolen last week. The thieves who stole them have already put them up for sale on a popular sales page.

The wheels are not standard and are very distinctive, so the wheels for sale are 100% mine.

How much trouble could I potentially land myself in if I were to meet up with the ‘seller’ and take them back?

I appreciate the information I've given is quite vague but I don’t want to post too much about this on the internet if possible.

Thanks.

[hornetrider]

Bookmarking this thread as it may run and run, given you've found the wheels!

[PAULJ5555]

If you call the police they will just delay things and maybe not even go round to the persons house, someone on here had this a year or so ago.

[a7x88]

This happened to my brothers bike up in London.

He had a custom single speed bike that was nicked which he later saw up for sale.
He arranged to "buy" it and met up in a public place. He had told the police what he was planning to do who basically wern't really interested (they gave him some ridiculous stats like 300 bikes a day get stolen in London).

He met with the guy and basically and as he was looking around it said something along the lines of - "This is my bike, i'm taking it back - you can call the police if you like" and rode off on it. That was that. Maybe slightly more difficult to escape with wheels though..... you would have to load them up then scarper.

[Durzel]

Bradley1500 said:

What are the legalities of stealing your own property back?

Unfortunately my wheels were stolen last week. The thieves who stole them have already put them up for sale on a popular sales page.

The wheels are not standard and are very distinctive, so the wheels for sale are 100% mine.

How much trouble could I potentially land myself in if I were to meet up with the ‘seller’ and take them back?

I appreciate the information I've given is quite vague but I don’t want to post too much about this on the internet if possible.

Thanks.

I'd sound out the Police first and ask them what you should do, you never know you might get someone who is quite proactive about this sort of thing.

The problem you've got is that the person selling them might not necessarily be the person who stole them, not that it changes ownership really. He/she could theoretically be an innocent party too (though how innocent someone can consider themselves to be when they buy something at an obviously too-good-to-be-true price from a shady character is up for debate).

Other than that there's the obvious safety considerations, and how you go about re-appropriating all 4 wheels while the guy presumably just stands there.

[Bradley1500]

Some more background information.

The Police have been involved but I haven’t yet mentioned I’ve found the wheels for sale. The jack left behind has been finger printed but nothing found – I assume they wore gloves.

CCTV is currently being looked into but nothing so far. The car was being stored at my friends garage but had to be left outside due to limited space inside, there was a CCTV camera on another building facing my car so a good chance the thieves would have been spotted on this.

I’ve had a friend message the guy now selling the wheels and we’re arranging to meet soon, I have his name, full address and phone number.

Looking through the guys selling profile he has a lot of wheels for sale, a quick search shows over 20 from the start of the year so I’m guessing he’s a career criminal and these are all stolen.

Annoyingly the car was damaged in the process of them taking the wheels. Leaving the car on bricks was too much effort for them so they dumped the car on the floor. In an ideal world it would be great to make a claim against them for the damage to be rectified but I know this isn’t going to happen.

Thanks for the replies so far.

Edited by Bradley1500 on Tuesday 26th May 12:40

[Davel]

The Police have already been involved - so update them and ask for their attendance maybe?

[Durzel]

Be very careful. You/your friend has no idea what sort of person the burglar/person who is handling stolen goods is, how desperate they might be, their affinity for violence, etc. If they are indeed a career criminal it's a safe bet they already have a much lower level of respect for other people than you do.

I think most people who get burgled talk about wishing they'd caught the person doing it, but in reality I doubt this is ever a good thing (powerful PH director types notwithstanding). Desperate people can do desperate things in the heat of the moment, e.g. if they've been caught and you can always replace your wheels...

[mikeveal]

You can not steal your own property, but you can get arrested for disturbing the peace. Your call.

[thainy77]

Take photo's of the guy with the wheels and say you will get back to him if he appears to be a psycho. If they are distinctive enough surely this would help your case further down the line.

If he's not a psycho tell him they are yours and just take them.

[Slidingpillar]

Regardless of legalities, if you go, go very mob handed and if you have any scary looking friends, take then too.

[Jasandjules]

mikeveal said:

You can not steal your own property, but you can get arrested for disturbing the peace. Your call.

BUT, you could ask the police to attend with you to "view" the wheels, and then assist you and "prevent" a breach of the peace if they are yours...

[anonymous-user]

Jasandjules said:

mikeveal said:

You can not steal your own property, but you can get arrested for disturbing the peace. Your call.

BUT, you could ask the police to attend with you to "view" the wheels, and then assist you and "prevent" a breach of the peace if they are yours...

+1

I've seen a few of these UK repossession type programs on TV where they ring the police and tell them will be a breach of the peace occurring when they enter the premises or whatever and therefore request police attendance.

Ring the police, tell them you are meeting someone who has your stolen property and there WILL be a breach of the peace and therefore you request they attend.

The problem you will face is that the police can often be quite, erm, 'late' attending such things and you can't really hang around for an hour waiting for them as the guy will have assumed you aren't coming and gone home again by then.

[anonymous-user]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Very true.

But you would have thought the whole point of having a police force was to assist the general public in situations exactly like this such as theft.

Plus, surely this is a massively easy win for the police. They can arrest the person selling the wheels for either theft or handling stolen goods without too much of an argument I would have thought?

[Monty Python]

Do you have definitive proof they are yours?

[MitchT]

I imagine the police will want proof beyond all reasonable doubt before they'll get involved. Also, if you claim back what's yours and the person who has it is particularly nasty, and knows where you live, you could end up with worse problems. Not that I'm saying it's right to roll over but sometimes it's the lesser of two evils.

[Bradley1500]

Monty Python said:

Do you have definitive proof they are yours?

Without giving away too much information the wheels are custom and have certain markings on them which match up to pictures he's sent.

[veevee]

Just go round and say they're your wheels and you want them back. 100% he will let you have them, you know where he lives and it's not really worth the hassle. Unlikely he's going to cause any trouble on his own doorstep, either.

[markmullen]

Big friends for a job like that.

[Davel]

Mandown46 said:

Yup, you definately won't get stabbed

And he knows where you live too...