The offense of theft involves a person unlawfully appropriating property with intent to deprive the owner of property. Identify the four ways in which property may be appropriated in an unlawful manner and briefly explain each way

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary but the key points are as follows. Appropriation of property is unlawful when:
1. Acquiring property without the owner's consent The taking of property from the owner without any consent is a form of theft.
2. Acquiring property without the owner's effective consent Taking property with consent but the consent was obtained by coercion, deception, from unauthorized person, child, or intoxicated or mentally deficient person. The law views consent obtained under such circumstances as not legally operable.
3. Acquiring stolen property knowing it is stolen Theft statute includes receiving stolen property. Individual must be aware of the stolen nature of the property for appropriation to be unlawful.
4. Acquiring property represented by law enforcement officer as being stolen property Statute treats property represented by police as stolen property the same as if property were actually stolen. This allows police to operate undercover sting operations to trap traffickers in stolen property.