Possession of Stolen Property or Petty Theft?

[Keroman]

 

While it's probably not necessary to add an entirely new law to cover this I wanted to point a situation that's come up several times.

 

Last week a person was brigged for being on the bridge. They had not done the actual breaking in but they were there in the company of the person who DID break in which is still either Major Trespass or Aiding and Abetting depending on how you look at it. Upon being arrested and searched in the brig it was found that this person had items from the vault (namely the gold championship belt.) The person tried to argue that they were not the one who stole the belt, they just found it, however the belt is a unique item only found in the vault (at least now that the holidays are over and you can't get them by unwrapping a present.) The person was sentenced to 20 minutes of brig time, and they kicked and screamed the whole way arguing about Space Law and SOP because they didn't "steal" anything.

 

Another example from just a few days ago. I was observing and saw on the radio someone yell that they found a gun in maintenance. I checked it out and they had happened across a hybrid taser which had no charge left. The person called for security several times but there was no response, partly because the player was typing in a hard to understand manner, and partly because security may have been busy for the moment. This person then picked up the taser and carried it around for a while. They went to the security checkpoint in arrivals, broke in by creating a hidden door, and charged the taser up. Eventually the person went to the brig to turn it in and got tased and brigged by the officer for possession of a restricted weapon. I would argue that both the player and the officer made mistakes in this scenario but that's another matter for another thread. The player took possession of a weapon they knew they should not have but did not turn it in immediately. If they had been caught and arrested for B&E into the checkpoint an officer would certainly have found the taser on him, doubling his brig time. Certainly this falls under Possession of a Restricted Weapon but not all items do. What if he'd found the hypospray in maintenance? Or the station blueprints? Or the nuke disk (which, by the way, actually happened two rounds in a row a few days ago)?

 

There are some items that are (or should be) known as unique to the station - i.e. there's only ONE of them - and possession of those things if you are not the relevant department head should be considered at least a minor crime. Obviously if you're standing in the security lobby and handing the item to an officer you should get a pass because you're turning the item in. If, however, the RD gives you his Reactive Teleport Armor as part of a fair trade for something else then maybe he or she could give you a sheet of paper with his signature and stamp on it with a quick statement, " is allowed to have the Reactive Teleport Armor as part of a trade with Research Director . [sign]" Simple enough, now the person can prove they are not in possession of stolen property. This also opens up the door for things like forgery and actually making use of department head stamps.

 

As I said, I don't think this really needs an entirely new Space Law to cover such a niche situation. Perhaps the Petty Theft law could be mildly rewritten so that instead of saying:

To take items from areas one does not have authority to access...

 

To this:

To be in possession of items from areas one does not have authority to access...

 

This would apply to all people who claim they "found" the item when there is no proof otherwise that they actually broke into or trespassed into an area they wouldn't normally have access to. If the player is found to be in possession of syndicate items then they've broken other laws and are likely to be permabrigged, but if they ditch all incriminating items besides the target of their theft then it can be tricky to pin down what sort of punishment they should receive in the absence of any other evidence besides their possession of the stolen property.

 

[Professor Cupcake]

In RL, you can be charged with possession of stolen items, whether you were aware they were stolen or not. It'd surprise me if Space Law didn't reflect this.

[Keroman]

 

I saw another example of this last night. A player busted his way into the armory and stole the ablative armor. He got away without the AI or anyone seeing him and even changed his clothing and gloves so that any forensic evidence didn't point to him. He was later asked to stop for a search during code red and didn't comply after which he was quickly tased and dragged into the brig. They found the armor on him and he repeatedly denied having anything to do with the theft, claiming that he got the armor in a trade with someone else.

 

The officers and Magistrate took nearly 10 minutes to decide on the crime and eventually settled on Theft, but aside from his possession of the armor there was no proof that he was the one who took it. I think they made the right call, but in deadchat there was some disagreement about what he should be charged with, with some people saying he should have been sent to permabrig and others saying it was only Theft.

 

The funny thing is in the Space Law entry for theft the icon that's used actually SHOWS the ablative armor. I really feel like changing the description of Theft and/or Petty Theft are the way to go, here, rather than adding an entirely new Space Law.

 

[Professor Cupcake]

 

I really feel like changing the description of Theft and/or Petty Theft are the way to go, here, rather than adding an entirely new Space Law.

Agreed. It's not worth an entirely new law, but maybe something like "additionally, those found in possession of stolen items, whether they themselves stole it or not, can be charged with theft" tacked onto the theft laws would suffice.