For those groups, cities, and individual owners of park display steam locomotives in Pennsylvania, are any of you missing steam whistles? I was surfing eBay over the weekend and came across a steam whistle that this eBay dealer claims is from a steam locomotive in a park in Pennsylvania. Unless they own the locomotive and they are selling the whistle, it is stolen property. Anybody care to inquire about this? I bring it up to return the whistle back to its proper owner, not to cause anyone heartburn. I don't know the legalities of an item like this being stolen and sold to another individual, but I believe it is against the law. If you are registered on eBay, you can get the e-mail address of the dealer and find out the story. My involvement ends here. Do not use my name or e-mail when contacting this dealer. The link is attached. Good luck.<br>



hubbard5004@msn.com

Well, I thought the link was attached. Here goes again! http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dl ... =431693732<br>



hubbard5004@msn.com

Paul, your assumption as to the criminality of purchasing a stolen item is correct. In most jurisdictions, recieving stolen property is a criminal act, punishable by fines and/or imprisonment if the person recieving said property knows that it was obtained by the seller through a criminal act. The key is that they must have known that the item was stolen property at the time the property came into their possession. If someone bought an item and was not aware that it was stolen property, they will be required to return the property upon being presented with evidence that the item was indeed stolen property. <br>Typically a police report describing the item is considered to be sufficient evidence to have the item returned to it's rightful owner. In such a case, criminal penalties would not usually apply to the buyer, but that may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. <p>However, in any case it is important to first establish that the item is indeed stolen and not one that was obtained through legal means. For example, in many states truckers or others that use locomotive type air horns are required to have documentation that the horns were legally purchased from a railroad or equipment dealer.<br>



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