castork
11-03-2010, 04:23 PM
I need to know if I can be charged with theft/stolen property if I have a vebal agreement with someone. I clean up propertys for people, mostly farmers with old equiptment and farming tools. 6 days ago a gentleman and I made an agreement that I would haul off 2 very old, very large tractors to salvage and after saleing them he would recieve a percentage of the profits after my fee and paying for additional labor and cost of said removal. Everything went fine, spent 12 hours over 2 days loading the items with his help. He was given 350.00 for his part. Then on 11/1/10 I recieved a phone call from a Deputy Sheriff telling me that if I didnt give the man $530.00 by 11/5/10 I would be charged with theft. I explained my agreement with the gentelman to the officer but he proceeded to tell me that he and the man had been friends for over 30 years and that I would either do as he said or go to jail. They recieved all my personal information by lying to the salvage yard telling them first the objects were stolen then after getting my info they then said they were just needing it to contact me for more work. I need to know what rights I have and what I can do to take care of this as soon as possible. Thank you.