A case against consignment by Federicko Talks Watches (Delray Watch):

I will loop @drcarter13 in here too: he (the maker of the video) is wrong about the law.

Florida's statutes involving theft contemplate this sort of action being criminal. It is a felony or misdemeanor depending on the amount of the loss (and losses can be cumulated: each watch stolen added to the total).

"Theft by conversion" is also called theft by trick, embezzlement, obtaining by false pretenses, or breach of trust. In each case the law had to work around the old English common law definition of larceny. Pure larceny required a taking without consent. When you give someone something consensually, and they convert it or its proceeds to their own use, it is nevertheless a crime. The police arrest people for this all of the time.

I am not saying that consignment selling is a good idea or that he is wrong in his observations about dealers, only that he misunderstands Florida law. A complicating factor may be the consignment contract. A violation of that contract may be both civil and criminal. I know from experience that the police will try to avoid matters that seem more civil than criminal.

I will loop @drcarter13 in here too: he (the maker of the video) is wrong about the law.

Florida's statutes involving theft contemplate this sort of action being criminal. It is a felony or misdemeanor depending on the amount of the loss (and losses can be cumulated: each watch stolen added to the total).

"Theft by conversion" is also called theft by trick, embezzlement, obtaining by false pretenses, or breach of trust. In each case the law had to work around the old English common law definition of larceny. Pure larceny required a taking without consent. When you give someone something consensually, and they convert it or its proceeds to their own use, it is nevertheless a crime. The police arrest people for this all of the time.

I am not saying that consignment selling is a good idea or that he is wrong in his observations about dealers, only that he misunderstands Florida law. A complicating factor may be the consignment contract. A violation of that contract may be both civil and criminal. I know from experience that the police will try to avoid matters that seem more civil than criminal.

So basically the “conversion, not theft” bit is another instance of police being unwilling to do their jobs?

Yes, sadly.

When something is called Theft by Conversion it is stealing where the object is obtained by legal means. The term is confusing because it contains a civil concept (conversion). Most states refer to theft rather than the older term larceny. (The word theft is from Old English, larceny is from Norman French. English borrows freely.) Of course, here we still have petit larceny. We call this crime Breach of Trust and it is a confusing burrow to fall down into (The statute does not define the elements of the crime, it only prescribes the punishment. Such is life in a common law jurisdiction. The farther from the Atlantic Ocean that you get the more clear the law becomes, in criminal law at least.)

For @drcarter13 : I believes that what I have said applies equally to California. I could look it up, but then I would have to charge you my customary hourly rate.