A moral dilemma, friend received what is likely a stolen cue

DCS_SF

DCS_SF

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
So a member on my team came to the game last night with a new to her cue. She was conflicted about it, and I was curious what you would do.

A friend of hers knew she played pool, and had a stick he bought off some "guy on the street" about 5 years ago, which he gave to her.

The cue is a pretty basic Pechauer, and had a hard case. It is all ebony with a black wrap. There are a few pretty nasty dings in the butt, but otherwise it seems in order.

So I'd say this cue was very likely stolen, but at this point what would you do? Would you use the cue? Try to find the owner from 5 years ago, and if so, how would you do that?
 
About the only thing one could do is check to see if a police report was filed. Then, at least, she made an attempt to find out if it was stolen.
 
jamnut said:
Kind of presumptuous to assume it's stolen, isn't it?
What would I do? I'd mind my own business, unless I was asked for help.
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Presumptuous? No not really. You don't generally find a decent anything from a "guy on the street" in SF that isn't stolen.

She was the first to suggest it before even showing us the cue (she didn't know it was pechauer), but everyone pretty much agreed it was very likely stolen. She was asking what she should do with it, and I thought I would pose the question here since we all had differing opinions last night.
 
I'm confused. I'm sure I missed something. What lead you to believe it was stolen?

EDIT - For some reason I couldn't see the replies before. I would run with it. SHE didn't steal it, nor did the guy she got it from. If the 'guy on the street' incident had happened within the last couple of days I might ask around just in case, but after years go by it seems like it's a dead issue. If anyone had a responsibility at any time to be concerned with the cue's origin I would say it was the person that bought it from street guy 5 years ago, but that window has closed.
 
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Just to ease y'alls conscience, ship it to me, I'll even pay the shipping. PM me for my shipping address !!!
 
How do you know he didn't find it?? Truth can be stranger than fiction.

In 2004 I left my custom cue, on top of my car, when I left the house. Just a brain fart and didn't realize it until I got to the pool hall. I was sick and it was gone. At the time I lived in the Dallas metro and there was 0 chance of finding it. Lesson learned. Fast forward 6 yrs and I see a guy in a bar with it. Told me he bought it off a friend for $300. I offer him the $300 and he refused to sale it, but the dumbass agreed to play me for it. He assumed he was going to win, keep the cue and put $300 in his pocket. Nothing more than a banger, and he lost 5-0. Got my cue back for free :smile:.
Seems to me your are assuming alot, without knowing shit.
 
De420MadHatter said:
... he refused to sale it, but the dumbass agreed to play me for it. He assumed he was going to win, keep the cue and put $300 in his pocket. Nothing more than a banger, and he lost 5-0. Got my cue back for free :smile:.
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Who bets their cue in a race to 5??...
 
ShakesSea said:
A possibly stolen cue from five years ago that has passed through others' hands, and a production cue at that, would give me no moral qualms provided I was sure I had no way of contacting the original owner who it may or may not have been stolen from (however shady the transaction, the cue might have been swapped by the original owner for a debt).

Buying a cue you know was stolen last week from the person who lifted it is an entirely different thing that I would never support.The person who originally bought the cue off the street is the bad actor. The statute of limitations has passed. A cue of greater value or rarity would be a different matter regardless of the time that had passed.
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This was the general consensus last night as well. I think she felt conflicted since another teammate was mugged for his cues last year.

De420MadHatter said:
Seems to me your are assuming alot, without knowing shit.
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No actually. She came in asking us what she should do because she believed it was likely stolen. I am pretty sure her friend also insinuated he believed it was stolen since he didn't pay much for it. It was in a pretty nice leather hard case, and it was clear that at some point somebody cared about this cue.

As for what I know, I can tell you that the little ****ing street fairs of garbage and occasionally nice things you find spread out in front of bums in my city are full of stolen items.

Sure, I am not 100% sure, but I'd place my confidence at about 90%, as would her and everyone on the team who she asked about it.
 
AlienObserver said:
Who bets their cue in a race to 5??...
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Someone who found the cue laying on the highway for free. I've had someone bet their cue in a race to 9 after getting busted. I played and won and said keep the cue. Not the most precious piece anyway ( I think Lucasi?)
 
AlienObserver said:
Who bets their cue in a race to 5??...
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Lots and lots of people. I've won a couple cues and lost mine once. I did give the guy cash several months later and he let me have it back. And the length of the race is totally irrelevant. A lock is a lock, and if you honestly believe you have the absolute dead nutz, a race to 1 would suffice for most. The guy who had my cue I would have put up as much cash as he asked for in as short a race as he wanted to play. Cuz I had the dead nuts. You must not gamble much, and if you do you probably played scared the entire time.
 
DCS_SF said:
This was the general consensus last night as well. I think she felt conflicted since another teammate was mugged for his cues last year.


No actually. She came in asking us what she should do because she believed it was likely stolen. I am pretty sure her friend also insinuated he believed it was stolen since he didn't pay much for it. It was in a pretty nice leather hard case, and it was clear that at some point somebody cared about this cue.

As for what I know, I can tell you that the little ****ing street fairs of garbage and occasionally nice things you find spread out in front of bums in my city are full of stolen items.

Sure, I am not 100% sure, but I'd place my confidence at about 90%, as would her and everyone on the team who she asked about it.
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So what's your plan of action to do about it? Go on a hunt for whoever might have had this cue lifted? You know how many people would say "yeah that's mine"?
Take it to the Police? They'd keel over laughing. No one knows where that thing has been, or how long it's been wherever it's been....Not the person holding it now, not the person she bought it from or her friends, not the other person on the street.

Put it in the "stolen cues" section of this forum and see how many hits you get. That's about my only suggestion. Put it on CL under lost and found, if you think someone cared about it at one time. Maybe that person don't care no more, that's why it ended up in the street.
 
Stolen? I dunno, maybe, maybe not. I purchased some pretty good cues pretty cheap
from people at the pool hall that just blew their wad and had to find a way to pay up.
Don't assume it was stolen unless you can find out for sure. Even if it was, it was 5
years ago. I'm sure it's long forgotten by now and it's likely be passed between several people by now
 
DCS_SF said:
Presumptuous? No not really. You don't generally find a decent anything from a "guy on the street" in SF that isn't stolen.

She was the first to suggest it before even showing us the cue (she didn't know it was pechauer), but everyone pretty much agreed it was very likely stolen. She was asking what she should do with it, and I thought I would pose the question here since we all had differing opinions last night.
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What's your friend doing talking cues out of people on the street????

Me and the rest at AZ are starting to make our own presumptions.....:cool:

She found a guy walking with a cue case in the street......scissor kicked him in the back of the head and made off with it. :grin-square:
 
DCS_SF said:
This was the general consensus last night as well. I think she felt conflicted since another teammate was mugged for his cues last year.


No actually. She came in asking us what she should do because she believed it was likely stolen. I am pretty sure her friend also insinuated he believed it was stolen since he didn't pay much for it. It was in a pretty nice leather hard case, and it was clear that at some point somebody cared about this cue.

As for what I know, I can tell you that the little ****ing street fairs of garbage and occasionally nice things you find spread out in front of bums in my city are full of stolen items.

Sure, I am not 100% sure, but I'd place my confidence at about 90%, as would her and everyone on the team who she asked about it.
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Once again your assuming. The facts don't care how much you believe something. Unless you go talk to the crackhead and he tells you it was stolen, I don't see your point. You sound like a cop. Guilty until proven innocent. I mean think about it. Some yam smoker sold you a cue, end of story. If someone ever approaches your friend and says, "hey that's my cue, it was stolen". Well, now you have something concrete. Until that day I wouldn't lose any sleep. And if you Californians have such a tender conscience I would suggest not buying anything, or accepting anything purchased from the crackhead bazaar.
 
DelawareDogs said:
So what's your plan of action to do about it? Go on a hunt for whoever might have had this cue lifted? You know how many people would say "yeah that's mine"?
Take it to the Police? They'd keel over laughing. No one knows where that thing has been, or how long it's been wherever it's been....Not the person holding it now, not the person she bought it from or her friends, not the other person on the street.

Put it in the "stolen cues" section of this forum and see how many hits you get. That's about my only suggestion. Put it on CL under lost and found, if you think someone cared about it at one time. Maybe that person don't care no more, that's why it ended up in the street.
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Like I said, most told her to go ahead and use the cue (including me). There were one or two that thought she should make an effort to see if she can find an owner, but none of us could think of a good way, specially since it was so long ago.

However, obviously if you were going to try, I wouldn't post pics and ask if it's yours. You'd have to give some details about the cue and the case.
 
De420MadHatter said:
And if you Californians have such a tender conscience I would suggest not buying anything, or accepting anything purchased from the crackhead bazaar.
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You know very little about me, don't make assumptions. Certainly don't lump me into some bullshit category you have for a geographical location.

As I already said, she felt bad about it, I think because a guy on the team had his cues stolen. She was asking the questions and seemed to feel bad.
 
DelawareDogs said:
What's your friend doing talking cues out of people on the street????

Me and the rest at AZ are starting to make our own presumptions.....:cool:

She found a guy walking with a cue case in the street......scissor kicked him in the back of the head and made off with it. :grin-square:
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:lol:

Oh yeah, what presumptions are those?

I don't know her friend who gave her the cue, but she's a nice southern belle. I doubt she did a whole lot of scissor kicking. Although she can be a handful sometimes. :D
 
This is why one takes a couple of photos of a new accusation along side a 3X5 card written thusly,
"This [item's name] belongs to me, Joe Flipping qBall, and I bought it from XXXXX on [date]. This photo was taken [date]."

Dave
 
DCS_SF said:
You know very little about me, don't make assumptions. Certainly don't lump me into some bullshit category you have for a geographical location.

As I already said, she felt bad about it, I think because a guy on the team had his cues stolen. She was asking the questions and seemed to feel bad.
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Fair enough :hug:
 
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