People v. Brown

38 P. 518 (Cal. 1894)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D is a boy of seventeen years of age, and for a few days immediately prior to the taking of the bicycle was staying at the place from which the machine was taken, working for his board. D admitted he took the bike to get even with a boy who was throwing oranges at him. The boy would not stop, and it made D mad. He left Yount's house Saturday morning and decided to go back and take the boy's wheel. Instead of getting a hold of the orange throwers wheel, he got Frank's, but D intended to take it back Sunday night. Before he got it back, he was discovered by Frank. D had taken the wheel and covered it in brush but was discovered. The judge gave an example that if D took this bicycle, we will say for the purpose of riding twenty-five miles, for the purpose of enabling him to get away, and then left it for another to get it, and intended to do nothing else except to help himself away for a certain distance, it would be larceny, just as much as though he intended to take it all the while. A man may take a horse, for instance, not with the intent to convert it wholly and permanently to his own use, but to ride it to a certain distance, for a certain purpose he may have, and then leave it. He converts it to that extent to his own use and purpose feloniously. D was found guilty and appealed.