What to Do About Stolen Property

Receiving stolen property can be considered a serious crime in the U.S. legal system, providing the basis for prosecution and potentially serious penalties, including through the Federal courts, if the person who accepts stolen property either does so knowingly or later, after a period of ignorance as to the property’s rightful ownership, discovers its actual status and fails to act on it. As such, people who know or suspect that they have received stolen property should inform local law enforcement as soon as possible and may additionally wish to contact the person whom they have good reason to suspect of having been the original owner.

Receiving stolen property is enumerated as a punishable offense in U.S. Code, Title 18, Chapter 113, § 2315, dependent on the prosecution proving that the defendant acted “knowingly and willfully” to receive, conceal, store, or dispose of items constituting interstate commerce and at a dollar value over $5000.

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