A hypotheitcal problem. Fairly serious.
 

I don't want to post this, but I'm going to.

About 2 weeks ago I was sitting at lunch with 2 of my really good friends. A guy we work with came in, and we got to talking, he asked if we wanted to buy 2 laptops, for the sake of the story, we'll call him Bob. My two buddies said, sure.

Well, I didn't think anything of it.

It came out later a guy that left the our company and he had been introuble for stealing, left town, and gave them to him to sell, and they would divy up the cash. Ooook, maybe it wasen't such a good idea to buy one.

Well, now, more have surfaced, and me and my buddy have come to the conclusion that Bob has been doing it. I'm not one to go and narc people out, and I won't. We were just curious, and worried that if this guy goes down, that Bob will tell them that they(my 2 buddies) have the laptops.

I'm not one to say anything, but this scares the hell out of me too. We are all very good friends, my 2 best friends bought the laptops.

also have one in my possesion that I'm working on for someone who also bought one. He knows absolutley nothing about computers, so I offered to help. I picked the laptop up today, and it's the exact same one. He didnt' tell me he bought it, but I'm computer literate, and have enough common sense to know.

I don't really know what to do. Giving the machines back to him would just look bad, really bad, no?

Any advice would be great. I NEED advice.

Ok, well obviously the guy is comitting a crime if he is selling stolen laptops. You are also technically committing a crime by not reporting him (I think - criminal law is not my forte). Your friends are also committing crimes by trafficking in stolen property.

EDIT: changed "now" to "not" above. Very different meaning. Sorry.

But let's take it as a given that you don't want to report him or your friends.

Here's the reality: if the guy gets busted (whether through you or not) he's very likely to tell the police who he sold the laptops to. And they're going to try to get them back to their rightful owner.

What are the odds of him getting busted? I have no idea. Too many variables involved.

So where does that leave you and your friends? I didn't quite follow, but are you troubled by the idea of telling the guy you know what he's doing and you won't report him, but you don't want the laptops anymore? Is he connected? Does he break thumbs?

If you don't want to let on that you know what he's up to, can you come up with an excuse for not accepting? You needed the money to buy something else, perhaps?

Anyway, that's my recommendation - find a way to get out of the deal. Maybe you can make up some shit about there being encrypted files you can't erase that are fucking up the settings (so he might figure the company installed it). Is he computer literate enough to see through that kind of ruse?

He's not computer literate at all.

That's why he asked me to check it out. I had no idea it was one of them, i'm also not 100% sure it is, but I can assume, by the type and brand, that it is.

I'm not involved in the deal, and we had no idea that's what they were when they bought them. None at all. They are just worried about the idea of "bob" telling them who he sold the laptops to, and them getting busted for it.

Is the company/ police actively looking for Bob or the laptops?

Not yet.

Eh, personally, i'd tell your friends to take a two hour road trip, and pawn the laptops in some big city. Make sure they park their car atleast 5 city blocks away. That way, no security camera's can pick up the plates.

Pawn the laptops, and cut your loses. Being caught with stolen property is no joke. Just get rid of them, after wiping the Hard drive of any traceable shit(IP logs and such...i'd just reinstall the OS.)...i'd wipe them down too...the laptop itself, so no fingerprints are on them...wear driving gloves when you drop them off.

After they do that, your friends will only be out a little bit of cash, and will no longer have the laptops.

Or they could just toss the laptops, and deny everything should the cops come lookin....

Or just turn the laptops over to the cops, and explain the situation totally...

Lots of choices. Personally, i'd pawn them.

Touchy situation though man...i'd get out though, you don't want it comin back to you

Since you think it is stolen property, i dont think they'll get their money back for laptops. I say just keep the laptops. And if Bob gets busted and tells who he sold them to( which i doubt he will), your friends can say that they didnt know they were stolen. The worst that could happen, is that the laptops get taken back. Also you could do the super honest thing, and take the laptops to your company. And ask if those were missing, and tell your story if they were.

Pawn shop is not a good idea at all.

1. Pawn shops ask for ID when you pawn items.
2. Pawn shops (in my state) are required to provide detectives with a list of all items pawned every two weeks.
3. Detectives match up the stolen pawned items with the subjects who pawned them.
4. Jailarity ensues.

I wouldn't worry about it if the company isn't activly looking for them or Bob.

That's why i said go far away, and do it, don't park car near location, wear a hat, don't leave finger prints, and obviously, go to some dive that wouldn't ask for an ID, the ones around here don't...but thats not saying much

Or...just throw the stolen shit away..

...nahhh I decided i should stay out of this.

Selling the laptops, pawning them, dumping them...

It all makes you an accessory to a felony. That's jail time.

You'd be (to quote the movie) "stupid, stupid, stupid" to do any.

I say go to the police and say you think you (or your friends) have received stolen property. Besides, it's the right thing to do. What ever happened to simple morals?

Mr Mephisto

:)

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

A deal that's too good to be true usually is.

I don't have any more silly things to say, but since you asked, you're obviously already growing a conscience.

YES! Do the right thing. Maybe even give your friends a heads up about your intentions so they can jump onto your wagon.

That's not hypotetical :p I'm with the last few posters... you do NOT want to be caught with stolen stuff, or trying to get rid of stolen stuff... turn `em in.

You are the one who has to live with yourself and your decision. What feels best to you as you read the above posts? Notice I said best -- not easiest. I have a feeling from your original post, that this is bothering you enough that you will "do the right thing." Whatever you do, be ready to live with the consequences. Best of luck.

In the eyes of the police you currently are (maybe) in possession of stolen property. You also connected the alledged thief with 2 friends that now both possess stolen property. That makes you an alledged "fence" for stolen property. I hope this is helping you to decide what you should do.

Years ago, I purchased some stolen cassette tapes (I did say this was YEARS ago :lol:

I had a feeling they may be stolen, but I bought them anyways. The guy gets busted and sure enough, tells the cops who all bought the tapes from him. He was trying to reduce the trouble he was getting into by ratting people out. So, now I was looking at a Possession of Stolen Property Charge.

But I was co-operative and the value at the time was like 30 bucks, so I just had to go to court and testify and wasn't charged with anything.

My advice...save your own asses and go to the cops. Because if you don't save your own ass and that guy gets busted (Laptops from a company are a bit more important than some cassette tapes), he's gonna name your friends to save his own ass.

"A guy we work with came in, and we got to talking, he asked if we wanted to buy 2 laptops..."

do you enjoy your job???

It doesn't sound to me like you have done anything wrong. Did you facilitate a meeting between your friends and Bob? Did you know the laptop was stolen when you decided to work on it for your other friend?

I hate to sound selfish, but the fact is your buddies are grown men and like cynthetiq said:
You should tell them what you think and be done with it.

For the record you should probably tell your buddies if they are at all worried about it, go talk to the police. It'll clear up any questions they might have about whether the laptops were stolen or not. You should also tell them to be prepared to write 'em off.

There are two types of possible outcomes to this situation:
1) Outcomes where you get busted - you may lose the laptops, and possibly even pay fines and/or do jailtime.
2) Outcomes where you do not get busted - you keep the laptops, but have to live with the knowledge that you may have committed a crime... always looking behind you for tails, and getting tense when a cop car drives by. :)

If you can live with the knowledge that you are guilty of a crime, and get caught, you can plead ignorance, and maybe nothing will happen to you.

If you can't (and I personally can't) live with the guilty conscience and the possible risk of being accused of a crime, turn the laptops in. Whatever happens, you will have a clean conscience, at the very least.

Go to crimestoppers (or the coppers). If the information you give them leads to an arrest you could get some money out of the deal. Be a responsible citizen, and get "bob" arrested. What if it was YOUR laptop he stole?

This is some of the best advice here. Along with the others who suggested going to the cops or to the company. I never liked being a narc myself either but I only refused to narc if no one was getting hurt. Here there are a lot of people who could get hurt, not to mention the company loosing lots of money.

You are in the clear, don't end up with fines, legal fees, court hassles potentially, and so much more possible trouble. This man will keep doing this till he gets caught. Think about the other's he will be selling these to and all of them my loose that money. You are saving other's from being defrauded. Think of it as good Karma. Besides, if you go to crimestoppers you may end up not being short as much cash. It's better than nothing, which is what you could end up with at best.

You guys did nothing wrong by buying the laptops, you didn't know they were stolen. For the most part people only get in trouble for POSP if they knowingly bought stolen property. If the cops were to show up later and say that they were stolen but believe your story that they knew nothing, then all is good. If simply buying and keeping stolen property unknowingly was a convictable offense, no pawn shops would be able to exist. They get out of it by complying by certain standards and reporting when they find out something really is stolen.

Finding out later that they were stolen and not doing anything about it is wrong though and if they can prove that you guys did know later that it was stolen but did nothing about it you might get in trouble, but probably not.

My advice is to convince your friends into letting you take those to work and have the serial numbers checked. No matter what happens there, you will look good and honest to your employer. Hopefully they will remember that. If the company can't match the serial numbers, your friends can keep them and feel good about themselves. They may still be stolen, but at least then if the cops did eventually come to you guys, that would look really good on your parts.

Um, it's at most what, a grand?

Demand your money back for the laptops at a minimium. Use the "there are some encrypted system settings I can't delete, what the fuck?" lie if you are a good lier.

Let the company who had the laptops stolen from know about the theft. This isn't a victemless crime, it's theft. This isn't your best friend, it's some boob who tried to screw you with stolen merchadice. Make the mail anonymous if you feel ikky about it.

Kurant, do you live in the south east US? We've semi-recently had two laptops go stolen, and no one saw the person who stole them or knows anything about it. Just got me to thinking. What if....