Let’s say that Peter and Paul decide to take a road trip from their home in Springfield to, I dunno… Ypsilanti.
So they get to Ypsilanti and Peter decides to play a little prank on Paul. They stop to get gas, and Paul goes into the bathroom to take a leak. Peter seizes on his chance, and gets in the car and heads home while Paul is in the bathroom.
So there’s Paul, hundreds of miles from home, thanks to his “friend” who brought him there and then fled.
Is this a crime? If so, what crime? Kidnapping doesn’t cut it, since Paul went to Ypsilanti willingly. I can’t think of any other crimes that would even come close.
Not finding an easily searchable Michigan criminal code (the one I found online isn’t very user-friendly) so I can’t offer an exact answer but I imagine there’s some sort of reckless endangerment statute that would apply, especially if as a result of Peter’s actions Paul was injured in some way.
This might not, or might not, be a criminal offence, but I’d guess that the person left behind would have grounds to sue, for distress and any costs incurred in getting back.
If it took days to get back and costs were incurred in accomodation, along with food it could add up quite quickly, along with the punitive damages that would be awarded.
Let’s say Paul is a loan shark, and he is charging so much interest on a loan to Mary that she cannot pay it back on her normal income. Mary decides that she’ll become a part-time “no penetration” prostitute, and sells hand jobs to pay her debt.
She’s “rubbing peters to pay Paul”.
[sub]Sorry. I really couldn’t resist that little joke. Happens every time I hear “Peter” and “Paul” in a sentence together.[/sub]
If any of Paul’s property is in the car, then there’s some kind of theft involved, since Peter is intentionally depriving Paul of possession (even if only temporarily).
I presume that one defense to vagrancy would be that someone just stole all the money that you had on you, but you have adequate means of support one you get back home.
“Sorry, officer, but some guy just took my wallet and money. He was driving a '98 Ford Escort, Springfield registration, here’s his plate number, and he was listing to Springsteen.”
It’s more of a fact question than it is a law question. Could they be charged with something? Sure. Most states have a law on the books about reckless endangerment or deadly conduct that could possibly cover something like this. Would it stick? On the facts given, probably not.
In my state deadly conduct is when a person “recklessly engages in conduct that places another in imminent danger of serious bodily injury.” If the guy’s “friends” left him, say, out in the desert with no water 100 miles from the nearest road to El Paso, they’d very probably be guilty of deadly conduct, if not attempted murder. The guy in the OP isn’t in quite the same sitaution; he’s probably pissed off and majorly inconvienienced, but if he isn’t hurt any more than that the DA and a jury would probably say no harm no foul. However, say for the sake of argument after he was abandoned things really went south for the guy. The guy couldn’t call his parents or hitch a ride and the attendant running the gas station left him there when he closed. Then, when he tried to walk to the nearest town to find a motel, he got lost on the road and nearly died of dehydration. Under those circumstances prosecutor and jury would probably be more sympathetic to his situation and a crimanal charge would be much more likely to stick. So, fact question.
Which do you mean, the question in the OP or the one posed by iamthewalrus(:3=? If the latter, it’s not larceny at common law or under most state statutes, but unauthorized use of a vehicle is a statutory felony in most states.
