Stolen goods

Me again.

Someone tried to sell me a mobile phone.

I did not buy it but later found out that the phone was stolen.

I contacted the owner who signed a statement to say that the phone was hers, but the owner was not willilng to report the matter to the police.

This perpetrator has been in court regarding other crimes but got a suspended sentence.

Is there any crime comitted between the perpetrator and myself in that she tried to sell me stolen goods?

If you 'know or believe' the phone is stolen and you buy it for any other reason than returning it to the rightful owner or handing it to the police then you commit an offence of Handling Stolen Goods. She commits the same offence for selling it if she knows or believes

Yes, see, that's what I thought. And yet the police did not bother to follow this up. Even though we had a signed statement from the owner of the phone saying she had come to collect the phone because it was hers. This woman is a thief, she has stolen so much from me and yet I cannot prove it. She has stolen from other people too, and furthermore she gets her "friends" to sign sureity for her on loans and then defaults, leaving them to pay the loans off. A lot of money for a helper to cough up each month. Finally I got her on the fact that she had racked up over HK$9,000 on my mobile phone by making IDD calls. And she got a suspended sentence and a fine. I just want to make sure that she doesn't sucker anyone else into being her victim again. I mean, I'm missing jewellery, clothing, money, shoes. But nothing can be proven because she pawned the goods and friends to whom she "confessed" don't want to get involved.

This is not a recent crime. When I found out about the phone bill I fired her, but I didn't know about the jewellry being stolen. I allowed her to stay on a few days in my home while she looked for somewhere else to stay. It was during that time that she tried to sell the phone to her replacement helper. Strangely enough, the sim card for the phone was found in the room she used when she was here. The phone was traced back to its original owner and returned. When I discovered my jewellery missing, I reported the matter to the police. But they could not prove she took the jewellery. They did not even investigate the stolen goods charge. All they charged her with was the phone use and theft of a small amount of cash - the charges for that were "dismissed", whatever that means.

Put it down to experience.


Next time you fire somebody, out the door immediatley. Because that is when she probably stole the jewelry.


One sad fact for me. After living in Shanghai for 4 years, I now agree with Agent Mulder's view of trust.