Can you &quot;steal&quot; your own stolen car?
<p>John Doe's car was stolen, along with a copy of the key. The theif then sells the car and key to someone else. John Doe is walking down a sidewalk, and sees his car in someone's driveway. He checks the VIN, and it is indeed the same car. He was carrying another copy of the key (only one of his two copies was stolen, and he never took this copy off his keychain), unlocks the car, takes the new &quot;owner's&quot; belongings out and sets them on the ground, and drives home in his car. He had never reported the car as stolen. Is this legal?</p>

<p>There's a good answer in <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladviceofftopic/comments/936yxw/can_you_steal_back_your_own_stuff/" rel="noreferrer">this thread</a> by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Trap_Door_Spiders/" rel="noreferrer">Trap_Door_Spiders</a></p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/3TlRN.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/3TlRN.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Assuming the car was really stolen, not &quot;stolen&quot; in the sense my
friend borrowed it and never gave it back, you could absolutely
recover the car. The reason you could, is because you can't steal your
own property. Theft is very specifically the taking of ANOTHER's
property. Here the property and the title to it has remained with you,
because it was stolen. A thief never gets title in stolen
property--it's called a void title. A void title is no rights at all
as compared to a voidable title which has no rights against the true
owner, unless you are subsequent transferee for value without notice
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bona_fide_purchaser" rel="noreferrer">Bona Fide Purchaser</a>).</p>
<p>Now we can even take this slightly further. Imagine our thief stole
your car and now sold it to Hapless John and all the remaining facts
are the same, can you still take the car? Yes, because title in
property tracks from the seller of the property. You can only over
transfer as good a title as you have in the property. So thief has a
void title. When he sold Hapless John the car he transferred a void
title, which is no interest at all. So when you see the car and take
it back, Hapless John calls the police and reports it stolen too. As
long as you could demonstrate it was stolen first, that's the end of
the issue. Hapless John has to go find the thief and get his money
from thief.</p>
<p>Now obviously this all assumes you see the car on say a street or
whatever. If you saw it saw it in a driveway, you could end up being
charged with trespass unless your state privileges the recovery of
stolen property by peaceable means. You still wouldn't be liable for
theft, because of the void title, but you can get the other charges.</p>
<p>All that said, you are better off having the police come and assist
you. If you are even slightly wrong you get hit with the full force of
the consequences. It's better just to have a police officer come and
assist from a criminal liability stand point.</p>
</blockquote>

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