[19elmo55]

I need some guidance on this for my screenplay. Thanks for reading and if anyone can help, great.

Here's the situation:

My character, a police detective, believes that an antiques dealer is trafficking in stolen property. He is able to confirm that this is in fact the case. There are some specific items the guy has on display that he can confirm were stolen from amuseum.

My questions:

A. Can he (the detective) shut the guy down? For how long? Can he seize his entire inventory pending an investigation of what is stolen and what is not? Or just seize the items he has confirmed are in fact stolen? He has good reason the believe the guy traffics in stolen goods.

B. What does he have to do legally, if anything, before he can do this? Does he need to go before a judge? Or can he just go in and do it on his own? Most important: if there is a legal process, just how long does it take to get the legal aspect done and what are the steps? Does it take a day, an hour, a telephone call?

C. Suppose he arrives at the premises, has the proper authority, and the guy is nowhere to be found and the building is locked. Can he break down the door and gain entry? Does he have to find someone with a key? Does he have to wait for the dealer/proprietor?

D. Suppose the crooked antiques dealer shows up, makes a run for it and is arrested? How long would it take to book the guy, get him arraigned, and how long beofre his wife could post bail. Are we talking hours, days?

Thanks again.

[magprob]

The "in plain view rule" allows the police to search the area without a warrant. If, for instance, you get pulled over and the cops see a bag of pot on your seat, they have reason or probable cause for the search. The cop should walk in, arreast the guy and shut down the joint, unless, there is an ongoing investigation to find out who is doing the stealing and who is doing the buying. In this case, if the stolen stuff is just put out on the store shelfs, (STUPID) there may not be a fence.

[Fr_Chuck]

1. If there is a police report, with a report of the stolen property, he will need to property ID the items in the store

2. To do this,he will assume or think the items in the store are the stolen items, he may even be sure, but he will have to prove they are.
If they are, IN TN, he can go in with proof they are stolen, and retrieve them from the store as stolen property. At that point, he can arrest the ower of the store for receiving stolen property

They can not normally take any other items, but would have to get a warrant to search the store for other stolen items, they would id the items in the store and compaire to other stolen property.

If he is at the building, he would have to go to a judge and get a search warrant that says he can break in to be able to break in, If the judge will not allow that, a officer will have to sit and wait at the buildign for someone to show up.

At least in TN and GA, after they are arrested, they will be have their first appearance the next morning. But can be held for up to 72 hours if other investigation on other stolen items is being done, as long as they are charged

Assuming they are arranigned the next monring, bail will be set them nomrally.

In some states they would have to present this to a grand jury prior to being formally charged