theft of a gift – legality question?
Question by Stephen: theft of a gift – legality question?
My parents gave me a laptop about 4 months ago because my crappy desktop was not cutting it. We have had quite the falling out since then. I will not be attending school this semester so my parents drove up from my hometown to have a talk at my apartment. I left at the end of our talk and told them to lock up when they left. I also told them not to touch my belongings. I came back to my apartment today to find my laptop missing. I called my father who explained that they took the laptop back because “it’s too easy to convert to cash.” I have no plans to sell it, but it certainly would help having it because they are cutting me off financially and I need every tool I can to get a job.
I am 20 years old, so that laptop is my property. There was no contract stating that my possession of the laptop was contingent upon attending college. So I feel I have a legal right to recover my laptop from them. Also the laptop now has gigs and gigs of my personal information, photos, passwords, videos, music, software, etc. I know this is theft, so how do I resolve this issue? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
i appreciate the answers so far, however i feel i need to clarify a bit.
this “disagreement” if you will is not over school. it is because of my decision to party, as i was previously sober. they came up to have an intervention. i can assure you the intervention was not necessary as i am not living life any differently than i was before. i stopped going to college because i can’t afford it. my parents are cutting me off completely because they simply don’t agree and i didn’t take their “option” which was rehab, so now i am cut off. i have no money, no job, no phone, and bills that they have left me to deal with. the agreement was i would be in school, or working full time. now that they have cut me off the laptop was my last means of communication and applying for jobs online. i will now be limited to using my girlfriends parents computer when i can. so in a sense, i could really use the laptop.
again, you’re going to have to take my word for it when i say there was no need for this i
intervention. they have spun out of control because of their inability to deal with this reality. taking my laptop was the last straw. it was not necessary and it is making moving on with my life more difficult. it’s also illegal. thanks again for the answers, keep em coming.
Best answer:
Answer by Giant Exclamation Point
If you believe a crime has been committed, call the police and report it. It isn’t going to help your financial situation, you may want to call your parents and work out your differences instead.
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