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A bass lost, found but still beyond

#3
Hmm. If a police report was made at the time of the theft I would think it would be an open and shut case. But $500 is relatively cheap (and I am unemployed at the moment). I bet it's really the principle of the thing keeping Mr. 'Smiff' from paying. I'd feel that way, too.
 
#5
Ghastly said:
I bet it's really the principle of the thing keeping Mr. 'Smiff' from paying. I'd feel that way, too.
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It's also the law. The pawnshop owner has stolen property, period. He needs to return it to the rightful owner. Doesn't matter if he paid for it, doesn't matter that he didn't know it was stolen. It was.

That being said, I'd pay the jerk his $500 just to get it done, but I'm not a working musician so I have $500. I bet that money is probably at Smutty's pain point at the very least.
 
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#6
arbiterusa said:
It's also the law. The pawnshop owner has stolen property, period. He needs to return it to the rightful owner. Doesn't matter if he paid for it, doesn't matter that he didn't know it was stolen. It was.

That being said, I'd pay the jerk his $500 just to get it done, but I'm not a working musician so I have $500. I bet that money is probably at Smutty's pain point at the very least.
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Yes, exactly my points.
 
#8
arbiterusa said:
It's also the law. The pawnshop owner has stolen property, period. He needs to return it to the rightful owner. Doesn't matter if he paid for it, doesn't matter that he didn't know it was stolen. It was.

That being said, I'd pay the jerk his $500 just to get it done, but I'm not a working musician so I have $500. I bet that money is probably at Smutty's pain point at the very least.
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There are finer points to the law. I know it should seem obvious whose bass this is from the paint job, but unless a police report was filed when the bass was stolen, the police have nothing to prove it was stolen. You can't just say, "hey, that was mine" and get them to intervene.

So 40 years later this guy can probably demand whatever he wants; as a pawnshop owner he's well aware of how this will play out with law enforcement.

I'd give him the $500 too but it sounded from the comments like this has been worked out.
 
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#10
It seems to me that as long as "Smutty" can offer some provenance by way of photos with the bass back in the day and a police report the owner should step up and return it.

But unless I missed it there's no mention of those things. If I were the pawn shop owner I'd be reluctant to just forward it to someone based on "it's mine."
 
#12
WI Short Scaler said:
It seems to me that as long as "Smutty" can offer some provenance by way of photos with the bass back in the day and a police report the owner should step up and return it.

But unless I missed it there's no mention of those things. If I were the pawn shop owner I'd be reluctant to just forward it to someone based on "it's mine."
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the article says the police found the van the next day empty, so there is at least some kind of report
 
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#18
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