Was I being a dick

[Chewy65]

A contractor called in a theft complaint, based on the fact that I wouldn't let him have a power saw he had stored in my garage. Deputies came out, threatened to arrest me if I did not let the guy have his saw, and refused to permit me to call an attorney. I told them I would not let him have the saw, explained why no crime had taken place IMO, and that I would regretfully sue for false arrest if they did arrest me. Deputies called it in and a sergeant came out. He told that my understanding of the law was flat wrong and said I would be arrested. I again explained to him why I was correct and would file for false arrest . He called the LT. I think the LT had a call into someone higher up the food chain, when my wife came home. They got her aside, she let the contractor take custody of the saw under the deputies' supervision, and that was that.

Anyway, from the point of view of a LEO, was I being a dick and was there a crime based on the little info I have given you?

[Ninask]

If it was my saw I would have kicked your a*
N

[surreptitious]

sound like a TROLL....but i'll bite. If the power saw belonged to the contractor, why wouldn't you just give it to him?

[luvnlife916]

To answer your question, YES.

Why didn't you want to give the contractor his saw back?

[Hot Holster]

Give us more info on why he was storing the saw in your garage, and how long it was there. Did you try to get him to take it back while it was stored.

[TRICKSTER]

I see you started trolling much earlier in the day than usual.
So exactly how many accounts have you had?

[NuGunner]

Well there you just admitted that it was his property. You yourself state several times that it was his saw. You can't retain property that's not yours. What else are you leaving out of this story.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[Cjoe916]

What's your wife have to do with this? Did they make a consensual trade for the saw? We need more details.

[joe_gman]

Ca-patriot?

As to the legal precedence regarding the saw, aside from the OP, it is the property of the Contractor that owns it. Any denial of his access and possession of his property is considered theft and can lead to the arrest of the person withholding the property. Any other legal issues such as breach of contract or substandard work, can only be decided in civil court. Denial of rightful property can not be used to blackmail because of a disagreement.

[River Bound]

Hmmm....Why wouldn't you give the man his tool? Gotta be a reason....right?

[Epaphroditus]

If you have to ask ...

[Oliver_Charles]

Ca_patriot? Zircon had been informed. Tic toc.

[CSACANNONEER]

Ca-patriot?

As to the legal precedence regarding the saw, aside from the OP, it is the property of the Contractor that owns it. Any denial of his access and possession of his property is considered theft and can lead to the arrest of the person withholding the property. Any other legal issues such as breach of contract or substandard work, can only be decided in civil court. Denial of rightful property can not be used to blackmail because of a disagreement.

LOL. your interpetation ofg the law leaves a lot to be desired. I sure hope you do not work in a profession that has anything to do with legal matters. What if your car/truck gets towed because the owner of private property
(which is open to the public) you parked it on decided that he/she didn't want it there? How about if you place stuff in a storage unit, don't pay and get locked out? Or, what if a property owner, like the OP, just decided to throw someone else's personal property into the trash because, he was cleaning his garage? Your blanket statement is so full of hole that even Linus would be ashamed. At this point, we just do not have enough information to know if the OP was wrong or not.

[Chewy65]

sound like a TROLL....but i'll bite. If the power saw belonged to the contractor, why wouldn't you just give it to him?

Anything but a troll but your question is fair. The guy was doing a bathroom remodeling job and was too lazy to test the waste lines for leaks when I called him (At the time he was on another site and his helper was starting to enclose the walls. He said he guaranteed no leaks and would test it when he came by that evening for his final payment.)

Hew wouldn't test for leaks that evening, but when I withheld his check he finally did and it leaked into the joist tunnel.

After he left and wanted to get his saw, I realized he had no intention of remedying the plumbing problems and completing the job and that I would likely have to pay a lot more to get the job completed AS IT TURNED OUT I DID. Like I told the deputies, I wanted to keep the saw while I sought a judgment against this unlicensed contractor and an order of execution on it.

[Adeodatus]

+1 on Ca_patriot.

But just in case...

I'm not a LEO but I had a situation a while back where one of my 5150 siblings that had moved out showed up with LEOs one day at the house demanding his stuff. One of my brothers told them nope, you are not coming in and we are not giving you anything.

LEOs told my 5150 brother that we did not have to give him anything (even though it was his stuff) and that was it. I don't know the written law surrounding this, but that is what happened. Maybe some LEOs can take a guess.

Possibly similar case?