One of my friends (well, not really a close friend, but we get along) offered me a tablet pc about a month or two ago for $300. All he knew about it was that it had 1gb of ram and windows xp. I figured it was a great deal anyway, but didn't have any money at the time and couldn't buy it.

He just got arrested. Apparently he stole them.

I guess it was a good thing I was broke. I'm too trusting of people...

Well, they could have tried to get you with possesion of stolen property, but, a mildly decent lawyer should be able to kick butt defending you.

But yes, you have to watch who you deal with. Too many problems out in the world atm...

I think as long as you are unaware (and unsuspecting) that it is stolen when you buy it, it is legally yours (not positive on this though, can anyone confirm/deny?). Although it would be hard to prove that you were unaware of it being stolen if he was, say, selling you a $5,000 Alienware laptop for $50, but in this case that obviously isn't so

true. I would also be worried if he had a number of them. If the deal is too good to be true, it probably is.

Seconded @ rivereye. Moderately amusing stolen electronics story: did you see the one about the guy on eBay who ended up buying his own stolen GPS?

no i didnt. do tell plox.

Here's a digg link to the story:
http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Theft_Victim_spots_stolen_GPS_on_eBay_nabs_thief

HAHAHA! I thought you meant his own stolen as in the one he stole, so i was thinking along the lines of he stole one, sold it, ended up buying one for whatever reason, and it be the one that he stole. that would be funny too. @nohj I think it is only yours if they cant pay back what you payed for it. thats iirc though.