Are you wondering if having stolen goods in the USA in your car is legal or to walk around with them? In times of great economic hardship and uncertainty, it’s no surprise that people go to great lengths to save money and search for deals to get the best bang for their buck.

With the cost of living steadily rising as wages have stagnated for decades, coupled with record high inflation, belt-tightening by regular, everyday consumers is undoubtedly the norm for working-class folks looking to pay down their debts and pinch their pennies anyway they can. 

But beyond clipping coupons and shopping at bulk wholesalers, some people get creative with their money-saving methods to the point of breaking the law by buying stolen goods in the USA.

In most countries, it is illegal to buy or even possess stolen property; however, buying stolen property unknowingly won’t necessarily get you in trouble with law enforcement. 

Buying, selling, and possession of stolen goods 

Most criminal laws regarding buying, selling, or possessing stolen property in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada require an offender to know the property is stolen to meet the threshold of criminality. In other words, buying something from someone who stole it is only illegal for the buyer if they’re aware the item was, in fact, stolen. 

However, claiming ignorance might not be a perfect defence in the USA if you’re caught with the stolen property because, depending on the circumstances, there could have been obvious signs that the property was stolen at its sale.

Federal vs. State Laws: The Varying Regulations on Stolen Property

Perhaps you couldn’t pass up a deal on a high-end bicycle that was too good to be true, listed online or offered for sale on the street for a substantial discount over its retail price. After buying it, you notice that the serial number has been filed off and that the frame has been crudely spray-painted to mask its original finish. 

Under circumstances like that, police and prosecutors could argue that there were obvious signs that the item was stolen, leading to a “reasonable suspicion” of its illicit origins. In those cases, it could be argued that a buyer of stolen property ignored or was willfully blind to multiple indicators that the item was indeed stolen.

While buying stolen property may not seem as bad as stealing itself, criminal laws dealing with the illicit trade in stolen property are in place to act as a deterrent against supporting black markets that wreak untold havoc on the legitimate retail economy. 

The past two decades have seen the insatiable growth of online marketplaces such as Craigslist, Kijiji, and others, which have radically altered the landscape for buying and selling stolen goods.

While police still have their hands full of organized theft rings and sophisticated fencing operations often linked to organized crime groups, tracking the buying and selling of stolen property online is a monumental and challenging task for law enforcement.

How the USA Differentiates Between Theft, Burglary, and Possession

The ease with which a thief can steal items from a retail store and instantly offer them for sale online poses obvious challenges for law enforcement, given the massive volume of online listings on buy-and-sell websites.  

The problem has persisted for years as online marketplaces and auction sites became the go-to platforms for selling used items. Back in 2014, for instance, retailers sounded the alarm about how online auction sites were fertile grounds for thieves to sell their ill-gotten wares.

At the time, it was estimated that upwards of 30 percent of online listings were for stolen goods in the USA obtained by “organized retail theft” rings, which often touted the goods as being new in the box with price tags still attached.

Commonly stolen items and the knock-off effects of black market goods 

Rarely do thieves target big box items for resale on the black market, though, since smaller items with everyday uses are reportedly easier to move. Stolen items that end up for resale on the street and online are varied, such as razor blades, diapers, toilet paper, off-the-shelf medication, and beauty and skincare products.

Consumers, in turn, should think twice about buying such items from an online marketplace since they’re likely to be stolen if the price is a substantial markdown compared to a traditional brick-and-mortar retail store.

Despite being clearly illegal, however, it’s not likely that police will come knocking at your door because you bought an unopened box of diapers from a guy on Craigslist. 

As Rutgers law professor Stuart Green told CNBC in 2014, people who buy a stolen item online are “theoretically … just as liable as someone who buys it out of the back of a truck.”

Green also said that state laws don’t always protect people who unknowingly come into possession of the stolen property, though being arrested is an unlikely prospect for a buyer since the police are undoubtedly focused on thieves themselves rather than buyers of their stolen wares. 

Key Indicators Authorities Use to Identify Stolen Goods

With that in mind, police forces worldwide urge citizens not to buy items they reasonably believe could be stolen. Law enforcement in Australia even published a brochure entitled “Don’t Buy Crime,” laying out the potential consequences of buying stolen goods.

In it, they warn people against participating in a “cycle of crime” that, on its face, may seem somewhat harmless, while the truth behind the theft is much uglier. If something is unusually cheap, it’s important to question why and “stop and think about the consequences” of buying something that could’ve been stolen from a burgled home or business. 

Conclusion

These days, nobody can be blamed for hunting for bargains and trying to save money. But it’s important to recognize that bargains that are likely too good to be accurate aren’t bargains.

The deeply discounted merchandise being offered for sale is part of an illicit black-market economy that causes ripple effects across the entire retail landscape, driving up prices for everyone.

That steal of a deal offered on the Facebook marketplace or Craigslist may be too attractive. The cost of buying stolen goods to the legitimate economy and its damaging effects on society are staggering.  We hope this article explains how stolen goods in the USA are a significant problem.