What do I do about a person's belongings when they are in prison?

Question

Hi, my cousin's husband went to prison for molesting our daughter's. My grandparent's allowed him to store his belonging's in their garage. My grandfather has passed on and my husband and I have the task of removing all my grandfather's things from the garage. I did not know I was going to find the items of a child molester stored in there. My grandmother is in the hospital now. Does anyone know what my options are towards removing his crap? His out date is 2012 and it is a possibility my grandma may not still be with us. What can I do? It's bad enough I have to deal with getting rid of my grandpa's stuff, but why should I have to respect this convict's things. I do not speak with his wife or exwife, I don't know what their status is. Any info out there for me? I'm ready to burn it.

Hamilton County, Indiana

Answer 1

Legally, right now, there is nothing you can or should do about it as both your Grandmother is still alive and your Grandparents made the choice to store the items for the man. If you would try to do anything with them, you could be charged criminally and civilly by both Grandma and the convict. His agreement was with the Grandparents, not you.

Should your Grandmother pass away, whoever is in charge of her estate will have to deal with issue of what to do with the items.

If there was any specific written agreement, then the executor would likely issue a letter indicating that the items needed to be picked up and removed by a specific date or they would be forfeited (it would be up the guy in prision to find someone to pick and and store the items for him and make arrangements for the pick up of the items).

If there was no specific written agreement, then the items could be considered as part of the estate and depending on the outstanding debts that the Grandmother has, could be forced to be sold at auction or left with the family to do as they choose.

If you are going to be executor of the will, it might not be a bad idea to discuss this with your Grandmother when she is out of the hospital and much better to let her know how much the situation bothers you and ask her to make arrangements with either your cousin or the man himself to have the items removed for her house so you will not be left in the uncomfortable position of having to deal with man at the same time you are dealing with the grief of her passing.

Answer 2

I think god nose is right. What's this perv gonna do, sue you? I think not! He molested your daughter! You can sue HIM and win all his sh*t, plus every cent he will ever earn in his miserable life! Have a garage sale. Sell everything he owned for a whatever you can get for it, and put it in your daughter's savings account. Throw whatever's not worth anything (papers, photos) into a bonfire, and you and your daughter toast marshmallows over it. Laugh, sing campfire songs, and tell stories about good times. When the fire's dying, say "Goodbye! Pervert!" (or "bad guy," depending on how old she is) and douse the coals. Trust me (as a survivor) there is solace in these rituals. Please trust me, as well, when I tell you that it's absolutely imperative that your daughter get counseling, no matter how old she is, or how "fine" she seems now. She will never be "right" if you don't. Believe me. I KNOW. If you can't afford it, sign her up for Hoosier Healthwise. They will pay for it. As you can tell, I'm from Indiana, too. There are a lot of laws about what must be done with a tennant's belongings, but I can't find anything about inheiriting someone's stuff, except that say that it's yours now. Also, prisoners do have very few rights when it comes to this. I've seen several of those cases on Judge Judy, and she never even has any sympathy for them. I highly doubt a judge exisits who would rule in a convicted child molestor's favor, for ANYTHING.

Answer 3

I don't know where you live so I cant say for sure. It would
seem that you could sell them for the storage. Give it away.
throw it away or burn it. To be required to take care of it
seems like - cruel and unusual punishment -. In our West
Tennessee county, we can arrange to talk to the judge in
privet in his chambers and find out where we stand on an
issue that we are in doubt about. If you can burn it, make
sure not to start a brush fire.You could be held liable for any
damage that might do. Make sure the girls know it wasn't
there fault. Sorry for all of you. You might find some porn or
something that would help keep him a little longer. Good
luck to all of you.

Answer 4

You don't say where you are. In the US every state has it's own statute of limitations on property damage claims. In Pennsylvania, it is two years. If you burn the stuff, the convict will not be able to sue you for his loss.
The statute of limitations on vandalism or arson is seven years. If you burn the stuff, there is no evidence. I am sure he will not come with any receipts for the items in storage, so he will not be able to prove they existed.

Answer 5

personally, I say get rid of clothes and stuff, but save important stuff like yearbooks, photoes, address books, personal papers. he can buy new clothes and furniture but can't replace the other stuff. I know it must be really hard to deal with all this. But remember that guy is a sick person to do that to a child.

Answer 6

Burn it... Seriously and we he comes out... Kill him... Seriously, Just say he tried it and it was an accident. People like him are a plague to humanity, Disquisting Pedophile.

It really makes me mad to know that all he gets is a jail sentence. Only 5 years.. Luckily enough People like him get beaten inside of prison and raped by the other men.

Let him feel what it's like. I'm sorry for whats happened to you.

Answer 7

Hang the sick b@stard that's what I would do if I pulled the strings.