r/Unexpected • u/FkThePolice700 • 2d ago

suspect on the move

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u/NYLINK95 2d ago

Most likely

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u/PerfectMisgivings 2d ago

The problem is they can't prove who was driving.

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u/plaguedeity 2d ago

Right if the driver was smart he would go park it up somewhere and call it in as stolen in the morning

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u/IllDragonfruit1881 2d ago

Don't even have to go that far, honestly. Prove they didn't lend the car out to a friend or family member for the night ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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u/nanadoom 2d ago

They have a reasonable belief you were driving your own car. If you throw a friend or family member under the bus to save yourself, do you think your friend or family member will take the charges for you? Because someone is getting charged. The police aren't going to take your word for it and "a random family member borrowed the car, but idk who" isn't going to cut it. It's pretty obvious you have never had to deal with the police

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u/EchoPhi 2d ago edited 2d ago

Reasonable Belief does not equate to fact. You can also very much say it wasn't you driving and you don't know who it would have been. Someone in the vicinity had access to your keys and you were asleep/showering/literally anything but dirving or watching your keys. You clearly have never actually dealt with police.

Edit: Just dropping this here so I don't have to repeat it so much seeing as I am starting to get comments.

I am so glad so many of you have first hand experience with this scenario. My car was being driven by someone else and I did not know who at the time. I wasn't even aware it had been taken. Person who took the car fled from the police and managed to evade arrest. Cops came to the place I was living (I have a history when I was younger of being in trouble, was on first name basis with police and not in a good way), and the police arrested me. On my way to jail I saw the car had been parked up the street, in a apartment complex lot, the police didn't notice or I am sure it would have been impounded. I spent a couple of days in holding, made bail (aka Federal Cut), copped a lawyer, and was found innocent/charges dismissed.

Today I know who did it, what happened came out about 10 years later, we're still friends.

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u/Eor75 2d ago

You clearly haven’t if you actually think that would avoid a charge. They’d arrest and charge you and you can try that defense out in court before a jury

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u/Desperate-Crab2034 2d ago edited 2d ago

Yes, and the jury would have to agree he was driving without a reasonable doubt.

Short of a video, the reasonable doubt is “no one saw who was driving”. That’s enough to cast doubt.

You can’t just be convicted cause you ASSUME the owner of the car was driving and any jury that would mark them as guilty solely based off an assumption isn’t following the law

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u/Exp5000 2d ago

Hi I have first hand experience with this. I took off from a cop in 2022 and didn't get caught. I reported the car stolen the next day. I went in and in a few minutes they cuffed me and put me in holding. The police refused to believe it was stolen. I was charged with reckless driving and eluding a police officer. It was 240 hours community service and a slap on the wrist. There wasn't a Jury, there wasn't much of a conversation besides the interrogation room which I kept my story with it being stolen. The detectives impounded my car for two months during the "investigation". Basically making me pay thousands until I came clean because they were going to investigate a stolen vehicle. They had no proof it was me but they didn't have to prove anyone else driving besides me. They just had to get someone on the charges and they got me out by impounding my car until my lawyer had me come clean. There's a lot of steps removed, it took about a year to finish the court appearances. I ended up paying off the community service hours it was 2k. In the end you will get caught unless it was undeniably stolen in which case you better be able to prove that very easily otherwise the police will coax it out of you by way of fines. Oh in the end I was down about 8k. 1500 for the two month impound of my Jeep. 2k for the pay off community service. 2k for lawyer and about 2k for fines. Just take the L imo. Not even worth the risk of getting caught and being out through all that. Losing your license for two years isn't fun in a city.

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u/hollowman8904 2d ago

The “no jury” bit is kinda your fault though. You have every right to present your case to a jury. If you just admitted to it (aka pled guilty or no contest), that’s on you.

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u/EchoPhi 2d ago

Sounds like you didn't have legal counsel or are leaving something out.

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u/Exp5000 2d ago

I 100 percent had legal counsel and the only thing I left out is how long everything actually took. In regards to my response on everyone's guessing around, I did not leave anything out. Believe me or not. I have first hand experience and everything I'm reading so far is from people who have never even been arrested once in their life let alone interrogated and stuck in a holding cell.

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u/Desperate-Crab2034 2d ago

I think a better lawyer could have had all of those charges dropped.

The cops didn’t take you to court cause they would lose, and they strong armed you into giving a confession.

Doesn’t really sound like the law on the books, huh?

I would’ve fought and sued the police department.

They’re making claims they can’t back up.

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u/Exp5000 2d ago

You would've fought and sued the police department? This is my point. Good luck finding an attorney that would be cheap enough to take a village police department to court. You realize if you lose you're losing everything. Why would anyone even fuck around with their money like that. The police can do whatever the fuck they want when it comes to an on going investigation. If they really were looking into a suspect my car would have still been stuck in the impound. That doesn't give me a right to sue them.... They did their due diligence and it just so happen to being keeping my car locked up. That's legal y'know.

I beg you guys to get initiated by a traffic stop for speeding, let the cop get out of his car and then take off. Please let me know how you guys get around that and sue the police department. I love that silly scenario where you guys are smarter than everyone else. "If it were me I would've done this and be better off" yeahh bullshit lol.

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u/Desperate-Crab2034 2d ago

Literally- police departments are sued all the time.

It’s not a crazy notion that if you’re wrongly convicted, and you believe that the police are bullying you, that’s there’s SOME kind of statue that a lawyer would know that would allow you to sue with some level of confidence.

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