Guy Buys Tank off eBay, Finds Gold Bullion in Fuel Tank
Since there's been no news updates in 5 years, guess he's SOL. Should have kept his mouth shut and melted it down in small amounts and either stored it or sell to "we buy gold" places.
May 08, 2022, 10:03 PM
M-11
Call Dave Truong?
"Common sense is wisdom with its sleeves rolled up." -Kyle Farnsworth "Freedom of Speech does not guarantee freedom from consequences." -Mike Rowe "Democracies aren't overthrown, they're given away." -George Lucas
May 08, 2022, 10:20 PM
P220 Smudge
quote:
Originally posted by a1abdj: First thing to do would be to tell nobody. Otherwise you'll likely loose it just like what probably happened with this guy. This is an older story, and I haven't seen any updates.
He's right. You can't just walk down the street with a huge gold bar and sell it without raising some questions. You could however buy yourself a torch, melt it into smaller amounts, and send it to refineries all over the world without a single question being raised.
Just pay the taxes on your new income, and you're good to go.
Bingo. You bought it, and all contents, as-is. That means complete with that funny smell in the interior, the stains in the seats, and the gold bars in the gas tank.
quote:
Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL: OK. Good plan, but who owns the bullion? I don't store my gold in a gas tank. There is an owner somewhere.
Sure was, and he found his new gold bars in the gas tank of his new used tank. Now the police own the gold bars. Pretty straightforward stuff, to my mind.
______________________________________________ "If the truth shall kill them, let them die.”
Endeavoring to master the subtle art of the grapefruit spoon.
May 08, 2022, 10:32 PM
BGULL
quote:
Originally posted by sigmonkey:
quote:
Originally posted by sigfreund: If the person he bought the tank from owned the gold, then the argument would be that ownership transferred to the purchaser. More likely, however, whoever put the gold in the tank wasn’t the owner and therefore the gold would legally belong to whomever it was stolen from. Legitimate ownership of stolen property doesn’t transfer to the thief.
"Always with the negative waves Moriarty, always with the negative waves."
We see what you did there
Bill Gullette
May 09, 2022, 12:18 AM
Edmond
_____________
May 10, 2022, 11:14 AM
jimmy123x
quote:
Originally posted by 4MUL8R: What a complete idiot. Kiss that bullion goodbye.
Yes, what a dumb ass. He could've cut it down, melted it into smaller pieces or whatever.
May 10, 2022, 11:23 AM
jhe888
quote:
Originally posted by a1abdj:
quote:
OK. Good plan, but who owns the bullion?
The guy who bought it in the tank. Unless noted otherwise, generally when a person buys something they own everything within.
Who owned the diesel fuel inside the tank? The same person that owned the gold inside the same tank.
This was in Great Britain, of course. I don't know what the law is there.
It isn't unreasonable to assume the gold was stolen. Under Anglo-American common law, stealing does not transfer ownership (even to a later, innocent purchaser), so if it was stolen, the original owner is still the owner.
Here's a hypothetical for you: Your SIG220 is stolen by some thug. Thuggy keeps it in is car, hidden. Later, the police seize the car, but don't find your P220. They sell the car to some guy at an auction. Is it his gun now? (Under the law, no, it is not, it is still yours.)
Now, when determining who that owner is is impossible, some other rule will apply, and I have no idea what that rule is in Great Britain.
The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything.
May 10, 2022, 12:57 PM
a1abdj
Maybe if the gold was stolen in the UK by the previous tank owner I'd agree.
Using your example, let's say my Sig is stolen and hidden in car. Car is later seized and auctioned. Buyer exports car to Mexico. Mexican sells it to a guy in Guatemala who then finds the gun.
I'd say that the Guatemalan is now the proud owner of a Sig.
As far as a US example, I had a customer that owned an artifact from NASA. It was purchased from a woman who purchased it at a Marshal's sale when the guy in possession was sent to prison for stealing/counterfeiting space artifacts.
Woman sent bag to NASA to authenticate, and NASA seized it saying it belonged to them. The guy in prison stole it from a museum who had it on loan from NASA.
Judge said she owned it. Government sold it, as is. She purchased stolen item in good faith. Flipped her sub $1000 purchase into $2,000,000 if I recall. Then she went after NASA again for damaging it while in their custody, diminishing its value.
In this case it was likely one government involved in war, either seizing assets of others or hiding their own. Like in the above case, if the government can't keep track of it's own items and those items are later sold, too bad for the government. This wasn't some guy knocking off the local pawn shop and hiding the jewelry in his car.
Granite Guy Plumbing Guy Electrical Guy Transmission Guy Gold Smelting Guy.
May 10, 2022, 03:07 PM
jhe888
quote:
Originally posted by a1abdj: Maybe if the gold was stolen in the UK by the previous tank owner I'd agree.
Using your example, let's say my Sig is stolen and hidden in car. Car is later seized and auctioned. Buyer exports car to Mexico. Mexican sells it to a guy in Guatemala who then finds the gun.
I'd say that the Guatemalan is now the proud owner of a Sig.
As far as a US example, I had a customer that owned an artifact from NASA. It was purchased from a woman who purchased it at a Marshal's sale when the guy in possession was sent to prison for stealing/counterfeiting space artifacts.
Woman sent bag to NASA to authenticate, and NASA seized it saying it belonged to them. The guy in prison stole it from a museum who had it on loan from NASA.
Judge said she owned it. Government sold it, as is. She purchased stolen item in good faith. Flipped her sub $1000 purchase into $2,000,000 if I recall. Then she went after NASA again for damaging it while in their custody, diminishing its value.
In this case it was likely one government involved in war, either seizing assets of others or hiding their own. Like in the above case, if the government can't keep track of it's own items and those items are later sold, too bad for the government. This wasn't some guy knocking off the local pawn shop and hiding the jewelry in his car.
Yeah, but the government was the owner (in the form of NASA), which then sold that artifact to your customer (via the US Marshals). The government (the owner) had gotten it back. The owner sold it, which wiped out everything that happened in the meantime.
Your Guatemala example is counter to traditional principles of Anglo-American law. It doesn't matter where it is stolen, found, or sold. But, as I said, the example at issue is in Great Britain, and I don't know what their current law is on this.
The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything.
May 10, 2022, 03:30 PM
Pyker
Their law is the same as here. You cannot reduce stolen property to lawfully owned property simply by buying it in good faith. It must be, if practicable, be returned to the last lawful owner. If this is not possible, as in the owner cannot be traced, in some cases where there is no suspicion of it being obtained by crime, it will be returned to the finder, but in other cases, it will be dealt with by a court who will decide who should possess it.
May 10, 2022, 04:13 PM
Gustofer
Finders keepers.
It'd be interesting to know whether the bars are identifiable via serial number or something. If not, it wouldn't be like a stolen gun where ownership can be proven. Any schmuck could say, "Oh, um, yeah...those are mine!".
________________________________________________________ "Great danger lies in the notion that we can reason with evil." Doug Patton.
