I had falling out with a friend, and had his bass here, since my boyfriend did some work on it, since it was pretty crappy. After some nasty messages, he said in a myspace message:

"youll leave my bass on the foyer downstairs? I guess your insinutating were done being friends then. so you know what? keep the ing thing as a reminder of how ed up you are"

Then a few days later he says he wanted it back after I already gave it away.
He threatened to climb my balcony or show up at my door (which is in a locked apartment building) to get it, and after I told him I gave it away, he said he'll take me to court.

Can he do this? Or am I in the right here?

You have no obligation to provide free storage for your "friend's" items. If you tried in good faith to make arrangements for him to get the bass, and he didn't follow up, you are within your rights to do with as you wish. You should save a print out from the MySpace page in case he tries (foolishly) to sue you in small claims court.

However, in the interest of not burning all your bridges - you may want to talk to whomever you gave it to and ask for it back. That would be the nice thing to do.

I had falling out with a friend, and had his bass here, since my boyfriend did some work on it, since it was pretty crappy. After some nasty messages, he said in a myspace message:

"youll leave my bass on the foyer downstairs? I guess your insinutating were done being friends then. so you know what? keep the ing thing as a reminder of how ed up you are"

Then a few days later he says he wanted it back after I already gave it away.
He threatened to climb my balcony or show up at my door (which is in a locked apartment building) to get it, and after I told him I gave it away, he said he'll take me to court.

Can he do this? Or am I in the right here?



If you have the print out, then you have proof that he told you to keep it and then it's yours to do whatever - if you don't have the print out it's your word against his and there will be questions about notifying him IN WRITING that you intended to dispose of it if he didn't pick it up in X days and so forth.

If he shows up, call the Police. If you think there are going to be problems, report his threats now.

If he takes you to Court, take the email with you.

He certainly can take you to Court. Taking you to Court and winning are, however, two different things.

You have no obligation to provide free storage for your "friend's" items. If you tried in good faith to make arrangements for him to get the bass, and he didn't follow up, you are within your rights to do with as you wish. You should save a print out from the MySpace page in case he tries (foolishly) to sue you in small claims court.

However, in the interest of not burning all your bridges - you may want to talk to whomever you gave it to and ask for it back. That would be the nice thing to do.


It's slightly more complicated than good faith arrangements - if the printout is not in existence then there must be a paper trail setting a reasonable time line. Unfortunately there is a standard of care when you accept something from someone for safe keeping - and that varies by circumstance such as forgetting something, asking a friend to store it and so forth.

And the "burning all your bridges" comment is good advice - why go through this, including a Court appearance whether you win, lose or draw if you can get it returned to him.