Posted on 04/09/2009 1:32:09 PM PDT by kik5150
AN HONEST student who handed in a mobile phone he found was stunned when police arrested him for theft.
Paul Leicester, 18, played the Good Samaritan when he discovered the handset lying in the street.
He rang the last number dialled and told a friend of the owner he would leave the phone at a nearby police station. But officers arrested him for “theft by finding”, held him for four hours and took a DNA sample.
Yesterday Paul said: “I thought I was doing the right thing and had it thrown back in my face. I wouldn’t go to the police in future. All I was doing was the honest thing. It was a shocking experience.”
The A-level student at Southport College, Merseyside, had been out celebrating his 18th birthday last month when he found the phone.
Paul added: “Being arrested isn’t a good way to celebrate your birthday. What are you supposed to do when you find a phone?”
(Excerpt) Read more at dailyexpress.co.uk ...
No good deed
And the “cops-have-a-really-difficult-job-to-do,and are just like you and me” crowd, to show up in 3,2,1...
I'm curious. Do the cops make the laws in England?
“theft by finding”...WTH? Is this a new Monty Python sketch?
The police erred. That isn’t how “Theft by Finding” works. In fact, they got it exactly backwards.
In England (and here in NZ) we have a crime called “Theft by Finding”. If someone loses something, and you “find” it, it does not automatically become yours: you must take steps to return it to its rightful owner. If you do — like this kid did — then all is well. If you don’t and decide to keep it yourself, that is “Theft by Finding”. It is not a common charge, doesn’t happen very often, but it is on the books and you can get done for it.
My experience lately is that cops are generally pretty friggin stupid.
I do know a lot of good cops who are bright, but in the last couple years, all the stories I read are about stupid cops. Maybe that’s because we rarely hear the good cop stories, but it would be very hard to balance out aall the stupid cop stories like this one with the good cop stories.
This could only happen with the gay-wad “police” in England, bound by no Constitution, and free to make up their own laws and procedures.
Not me... LOL...
The article said — Paul added: “Being arrested isn’t a good way to celebrate your birthday. What are you supposed to do when you find a phone?”
—
Well, drop it off anonymously next time... If you have to, just throw it in the door and walk off... :-)
The cops might not make the laws, but I think theft by finding might apply if the kid took the phone home to keep, NOT if the did the logical honest thing and bring it to the police station!
Yeah, chuck something through the door of a police station and take off. Great move - if you want the arse kicking of a lifetime, or more like life-ending arse kicking.
Yay for the UK! Punish all those evil Good Samaritans!
You have a lot of experience with cops?
I don't disagree. I am curious how the law is written.
Next time I bet he stomps all over it. I would.
You sure don’t know how to be sneaky, do you? LOL...
I mean, I could do that very easily... just leave it right on the steps — and (in case you don’t know) — you don’t run, you *never* run. That’s a dead-give-away* :-) ...
You walk just like normal and you don’t look around and over your shoulders and you just keep right on going. If some police were to happen to notice it there, in the next 10 or 15 seconds (not having seen anyone put it there), with you walking normally and not looking around, you would attract no attention....
You’ve got to know how *not to stand out*... LOL...
Sorta like if you don’t want your baby drop it of at church hospital and night drop at the police station
Yeah, actually, i do have a lot of experience with cops. I hire many of them for traffic details, and about half are too stupid to handle that, and in no way should be dealing with the public in general.
If you are trying to imply I am a punk, i’ve never been arrested. OK, well, a couple times, but never convicted, and the cop who arrested me is now in jail for it. Stupid cop. Actually, last I heard, he wasn’t in jail, he was in the comatose patient storage unit of the hosptial.
I think that should pretty well answer your question.
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