Woman Says Officer Tried To Sell Her Stuff On Craigslist 35
Quothz writes "Last spring, an Arlington police officer listed his neighbor's athletic gear on Craigslist. After a review, the Tarrant District Attorney's office has decided no crime was committed. 'The law just wasn't there,' says county prosecutor Dixie Bersano. So, Texans, clean up those yards and lock those doors, your stuff is free for the giving."
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Informative)
criminal mischief charge
Technically, this is worse than an armed robbery: you get charged with all kinds of things if you try to defend your property.
Fault of the owners. (Score:1, Informative)
If they had never permitted people to remove the items and instead protested the removal of the basketball hoop they would have been able to have the cop prosecuted under conspiracy as an accomplice to the crime of theft. Since the rightful owner did not post the ad the removal of said property from their home would have been theft.
However, as the article says when they confronted people coming to remove the items they permitted them to remove them because they planned to replace them. Their permission negates theft.
The lack of prosecution does not negate the possibility of a civil case for the cost recovery of loss. The fact is the officer is still liable.
The greater failure is if the officer is not terminated for gross misconduct, or ethical deficiencies.
Re:Terrible write up, nothing was sold... (Score:3, Informative)
It is quite possible no charges against the cop where placed because there was no evidence that the cop had anything to do with anything (except living next door to these people).
In the second article, you'll see that Craigslist notified her that the posting was placed with an account belonging to her cop neighbor. That's fairly damning evidence.