[whyme032011]

A few days ago I was arrested at my place of employment. I work in the wireless business, mainly selling, buying and trading cell phones and also repairs, etc.

The business was only opened for about a week when I was arrested by an undercover officer that was from Durham Region. I am in Toronto.

They told me I was being charged for 2 counts of possession of stolen property and 1 count of conspiracy to commit an indictable offense. They then put me into a car with two uniformed officers from Durham and brought me back to Oshawa.

After being in the cell for a while, the detectives took me out for questioning. Apparently, they are accusing me of an armed robbery that happened in Oshawa a few months ago where $20,000 worth of phones were stolen. They then proceeded to tell me that all my phones have been seized, my money has been seized and that they found marijuana in my home and placed a possession to traffic charge on me also.

I started working in this industry in the beginning of December of 2010. I worked for cash for my boss at his cellular phone store. Everything I know about the business I learned by observing him. The detectives proceeded to tell me that the robbery occurred in January of 2011 and that after the robbery, I was in possession of two of the units from the robbery and had sold one of them to an undercover officer who came in while I was working at my previous place of employment.

They then told me that my boss had 100+ phones seized and $30,000 cash. I had around 10 phones seized and $2000 cash.

My question is what do I do? I have no idea where my phones come from, I sit on kijiji and craigslist all day long to find good deals to purchase and resell. People come to me to sell their phones or trade up for another device constantly.

I'm still shocked that this has happened. I have one previous charge for possession but that charge was withdrawn based upon completion of community service hours. I've never robbed or conspired to rob anyone or anything, let alone someone in Oshawa. That place is a mission for me to get to and I have no business in that place regardless.

I tried getting legal advice but no lawyers would like to help me because I have no money since the police seized all my stuff. I'm 23, spent 6 years in University and have kept my nose clean besides being a big pothead!

The detectives let me out on my own reconnaissance the very same day. The arrest happened at 12:40pm and I was released that night around 9:30pm.

[Fr_Chuck]

If you keep standard and normal records, you will know where each phone came from, you will know which phone by serial number came from what eBay or craigslist sale and should have printed a receipt or copy of the transaction to proof of purchase or proof of sale, since you have to of course have a record of each of those for your taxes anyway, ( right) so if you claim you don't have those records, you may also be waiting on a visit from the tax people also.

So by providing them proof of where the stolen phones came from will be your defense.

[whyme032011]

I understand completely but maybe some more information will help.

As stated, I started working for my boss in the beginning of December and ended in the middle of February.

While I was working for him, I was doing my job as he had taught me. My responsibility at work is to post ads on craigslist and kijiji for the phones we had for sale in his store. When people came to buy phones from us, no names or numbers are taken. When people sold phones to us, no names or numbers were taken.

One day sometime in December I believe, I had gotten a parking ticket while at work. This had me frustrated. A couple days later, I had received my pay for the week... $425 cash for working approximately 10 hours a day, Mon-Fri and about 8 hours on Saturdays. Sundays were my days off.

Anyway, it just so happened that that day a young gentleman had come into the store and wanted to sell 4 blackberries to my boss. Now, these blackberries were being sold at $375 for the specific models at my boss' store. The man said he would like $300 for each phone which means $1200. I saw this as an opportunity to make some money to pay for the parking ticket I had previously received and of course, I saw an opportunity to make about $30 on top of that so I immediately called my boss, told him there was someone here to sell phones and that he had 3 units for $300 each. My boss said go to the back and get $900 and pay the man and check the phones. I did exactly that, except I added my $300 from my pay cheque on top of the $900 so that I could get all 4 phones. I then took that phone that I had purchased myself and made $75.

That's how I got into the entire selling phones thing personally. Since that day, I would spend all my hours browsing through online ads and communities looking to make a couple bucks on the side while working. All the purchases were private sales and as so, I never really thought about recording down each persons name and number.

When the store opened, I had phones remaining from before when I was accumulating some of them as my side sales while working for my boss. I had sold a total of 3 units under the new business before I had gotten arrested.

That is why I have no records of where I bought my phones because none of them were purchased through a business. They were all private. At the new business we had waivers of liability already made by a lawyer and we would require every person who wanted to sell a phone to us to sign these waivers. Sadly, none of them were ever placed to use as the business did not get an opportunity to enforce the waivers before the entire arrest incident happened.

[Fr_Chuck]

Ok, so on top of that, you did fraud to your boss and cheated him on the sale and profit of one phone.

And you were doing all sales like someone selling out of the trunk of their car and not a real licensed business that is paying taxes and following laws on buying and selling used items as a busniness. Did you ever wonder why when you go to a pawn shop, they make you show a ID and often make a copy of it ? Well now you know.

You opened yourself up for this by doing business in a unprofessional manner ( sorry not being rude, just being honest)

So you are going to have to hope, by your attorney showing proof of how you did business.
But at the end of the day, the phone was stolen, and you bought it, and were in possession of stolen property, and id you did it several time, this is what the law is,

[whyme032011]

No judgment from me here, I came for help and do not mind the straight up truth and brutal honesty.

Yes, in fact I was selling phones like something out of a trunk of a car. At that time, I wasn't trying to run a business or anything. I just saw a way to provide for myself and my family while also working a job.

I didn't think I was doing anything wrong by buying phones for a cheaper price online and reselling them online... I was only making $25-50 per sale but it was enough for me at the time to cover for some expenses.

And yes, now I do know that the photo IDs are usually asked for but I didn't know that before. And in response to the rhetorical pawn shop question, no I did not know that previously until you stated it as I have never been into a pawn shop before.

I just thought that people brought their stuff in to sell for some money.

[Fr_Chuck]

Two things are going to happen, they will understand you were just selling phones you bought and will either drop those charges or they will decide to make an example out of you for others.

That of course does not help with the drug charges.
Next of course remember that police lie, they will tell you that your old boss may have even told them you did it all, does not mean he did, or that they took that from him.

What to expect, most likely you will not see the phones or cash back and unless you can find a way to show that the warrant was not lawful you will have trouble getting out of it completely.

So best bet, plead not guilty, ask for and get a court appointed attorney. Have them try and work out a plea agreement to get the theft charges dropped and the possession with intent just to possession.

If you can get enough things dropped most likely will get just probation but will have a record.

[excon]

Hello w:

As discussed, you don't keep good records. That doesn't mean you robbed a store. They're going to have to PROVE you did rob it, rather than you having to prove you didn't. Armed robbery is a very personal crime. If you didn't do it, you shouldn't have any worries. I wouldn't discuss this case with ANYBODY but your lawyer. I assume you'll get a court appointed one.

excon

[whyme032011]

Thank you very much, both of you for the responses and advice.

excon, you calmed me down a lot. I didn't do anything and I've been tripping out about jailtime and all this other crap lately but your reply has helped ease things.

Thank you once again!