lawyers, i need advice! *UPDATE*

[zayened]

Ok. Here's what happen. I went to a place called aggressive Paintball and got my paintball gun fixed. When I went to pick it up, I noticed a really nice Mac11 airsoft gun. I asked if I can borrow the airsoft and that I would leave my paintball gun there as collatoral. Fine. I took the airsoft gun. 2 weeks later, he called my cell phone and talked to my brother. He told my brother that he wanted the gun back. Fine. I was busy for a bit, but finally 2 weeks after the phone call, I made it in. When I walked in, he said, "That's a mighty fine Mac11 you got there." Basically, he told me that he had to sell my paintball gun to profit due to the fact that I had the Mac11 too long. Is that legal? He pointed at a sign he has in his store that says "Not responsible for merchandise left over 30 days." He doesn't even have proof that he had it over 30 days, but then again i dont have proof that he didnt have it over 30 days. What can/should I do? How far would a civil suit go? PLEASE HELP!!!

value of airsoft gun = $75
value of paintball gun = $600

Well, I went back to the place today and asked if he had my gun. He said no he didn't. When I came at him with all this legal stuff, he quickly asked me to leave his property. I told him that I wasnt going to leave until I got my gun back. He said he was going to call the police and I told him I dont care. He ended up calling and I ended up getting kicked out. I do plan on filing a civil suit against him. Does anybody know how much $ that is? I'm wondering if I should take him to judge Judy? Anyway, I messed up pretty good with this one.

 

[Gravity]

Sorry, you lose!

 

[BatmanNate]

You left $600 collateral for a $75 object and neglected to promptly return it? (with no written contract to boot)

Bwu hah hah hah hah hah.

 

[crt1530]

That's an expensive way to learn not to procrastinate.

 

[brigden]

Holy ****, you're an idiot.

 

[StageLeft]

Honestly man if this is not a fake joking post what were you thinking leaving a $600 gun as collateral on a $75 object for 2 weeks? That's really, really idiotic.

 

[zayened]

mind you people that my gun was there almost a month just getting fixed. every time i called they said, "Sorry, our specialist hasnt come in yet."

 

[zayened]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Honestly man if this is not a fake joking post what were you thinking leaving a $600 gun as collateral on a $75 object for 2 weeks? That's really, really idiotic.

its called priorities. I have a job and stuff. i usually dont get off until 8 pm and thats when the place closes. they close on sundays. i know he's lying about selling the gun and kept it for himself. is there anything i can (legally) do?

 

[Entity]

Originally posted by: zayened

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Honestly man if this is not a fake joking post what were you thinking leaving a $600 gun as collateral on a $75 object for 2 weeks? That's really, really idiotic.

its called priorities. I have a job and stuff. i usually dont get off until 8 pm and thats when the place closes. they close on sundays. i know he's lying about selling the gun and kept it for himself. is there anything i can (legally) do?

No. You are screwed.

Rob

 

[HonkeyDonk]

Can you try returning the airsoft gun and get the money that he sold the paintball gun for...and maybe on top give him a small cut of it since you did borrow his gun longer than he wanted it to be.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: zayened

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Honestly man if this is not a fake joking post what were you thinking leaving a $600 gun as collateral on a $75 object for 2 weeks? That's really, really idiotic.

its called priorities. I have a job and stuff. i usually dont get off until 8 pm and thats when the place closes. they close on sundays. i know he's lying about selling the gun and kept it for himself. is there anything i can (legally) do?

If he is going to claim it's been there more than 30 days you can probably not do much unless you can produce receipts showing that you paid for repairs on your PB gun on a certain date (within the 30 days), and that's when the swapping ocurred. Then he'd probably have to say he tried to contact you. You can also tell people not to go there or ask him how he expects to grow his business if he treats customers this way (hinting that you will tell people of it), and things of that sort. In many ways it's his word against yours though

 

[StageLeft]

Oh and I am not sure the 30 days applies. 30 days is if you get something repaired and leave it there, after 30 it's yours. In this case though you left a gun as collateral and I'd almost wonder if legally anything left as collateral is considered worth what the original item was, and so in that sense it's almost his immediately unless you signed a contract. People leave car titles as collateral at these title-loan stores, and the car is by definition worth more than the loan they're taking.

 

[Entity]

You can also tell people not to go there or ask him how he expects to grow his business if he treats customers this way (hinting that you will tell people of it), and things of that sort. In many ways it's his word against yours though

That is probably your best bet, FWIW. Legally you don't have much recourse, AFAIK.

http://www.findlaw.com

You could always run a search on collateral and loans...good luck.

Rob

 

[lizardboy]

You've got a decent case for at least the additional profits he made on the sale beyond what the airsoft gun was worth. Look in the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) which governs sales of goods.

You're still an idiot.

 

[Mill]

Just because it says not responsible doesn't mean that he can profit or that it absolves him of liability. I would tell him to return the gun or you are filing a theft report. Secondly, if that doesn't have the desired outcome, then I would certainly take him to small claims court or consult a lawyer.

 

[Loggerman]

Go after his a$$.
30 days, only AFTER it's been fixed.

 

[kranky]

I bet that he would have given your paintgun back if you had returned his promptly, but he got ticked off that you didn't come back for two weeks, then after he called you you didn't come back for another two weeks.

Let me guess - you didn't call him to tell him when you would be coming in, and when you got there you didn't apologize for the delay.

I think your best course of action is to go back to the shop, apologize for taking so long, explain that you don't want any trouble and that the fair thing to do would be to return your paintgun and you'll give him $10 for his inconvenience. You have nothing to lose. Don't bring up that he said he already sold yours, because he might not have.

If that doesn't work, I don't know what your options would be. His side of the story is going to be that you left yours as collateral, never brought his back, and after he called you two weeks later you didn't show up for another two weeks. It doesn't really look that good for you IMHO.

 

[Antisocial Virge]

Tough lesson but I figure if you waited two weeks after he called you deserve it. Hell if it was me and I owned the store I would be pissed also.

 

[zayened]

isnt collatoral reversed if i return the gun? the collatoral is only his as long as i have what he is letting me "borrow." there was never a contract between us stating the paintball gun was his after so many days. the 30 days sign would not apply because i didnt leave my gun there as a customer.

 

[Mill]

As mentioned earlier, you had a verbal agreement to give him your property as collateral and you would return his. Did he specify a time? If he didn't then you should absolutely file a police report because he STOLE your gun. It doesn't matter how long zayened took to return if the verbal contract didn't specify a time period. IANAL, but I seriously think that there is no legal way for this guy to keep your gun.

 

[Turkish]

You might have priorities but he has a business. Maybe he was going to loan that airsoft gun to someone else and make profit. But since you had it, he couldn't and he sold your paintball gun. I don't feel sorry for you, you deserved it. 2 weeks is a long time.

 

[Turkish]

Originally posted by: zayened
isnt collatoral reversed if i return the gun? the collatoral is only his as long as i have what he is letting me "borrow." there was never a contract between us stating the paintball gun was his after so many days. the 30 days sign would not apply because i didnt leave my gun there as a customer.

wow great.. you fvcked up, you made him wait 2 weeks and now you are trying to screw him

 

[flot]

Totally your fault. In fact, when I saw the thread and you said "collatoral" I assumed you meant you were going to walk outside, use it for an hour or something like that.

Why would you think you could wander out of a business, keep their product for *A MONTH* and it wouldn't matter to them?!?!?!??

I wouldn't be surprised at all if he sold your gun, but I think the *best* you could hope for would be that you could go back in, say "look, sorry I kept your gun so long, I didn't realize what I did - I'll give it back and $xx for your trouble, but I'd really like my gun back if you happen to still have it, or know who does."

and $xx should be a number between $40 and $100.

 

[zayened]

Originally posted by: Xiety
You might have priorities but he has a business. Maybe he was going to loan that airsoft gun to someone else and make profit. But since you had it, he couldn't and he sold your paintball gun. I don't feel sorry for you, you deserved it. 2 weeks is a long time.

i'm not asking for your sympathy, just your advice. me being a stupid idiot isnt advice either as that cant possibly help me in the situation. thanks for your input though.

 

[zayened]

oh yeah, the gun was used. they had my gun for almost a month just to fix it. i never told him it was for an hour of use. he did call me 2 weeks later, but didnt even talk to me. he talked to my brother.