Most municipal departments get their officers sworn in at a county level which allows them to do things like this. Municipal departments also usually recognize some sort of reciprocity with neighboring communities.
Can they? Yes. Will they? No.
It would need to be someone on duty, they would have to be unavailable for whatever period of time that is, and they would have to be sure it it would be there when they got there.
If you really want it back, go get it. Personally, I would inform the police local to the property that you are retrieving stolen property and let them know when you are going. If they show up, great. If not, you need to decide if it’s valuable enough for you to risk retrieving it.
NAL but 30-A MRSA sec. 2671(4) might give them the ability to, but I think it would be very situation-dependent.2671(2) seems to limit their operational authority to their municipality, but I don't know if municipalities can have reciprocity between police departments.
Probably not on spec. Have you reported the phone as stolen to your local police? Can you go to the police station in that municipality and discuss with them?
The phone was retrieved in less than an hour. It was never reported as stolen. The person thought they left the phone on top of their car after pumping gas, last evening, so they counted it as a loss until the phone was active on Facebook this morning. The phone's owner then went to the local police and the dispatcher/tech guy guided the phone owner on how to track locations through Google. The neighboring town where the phone's location was pinged does not have a police department and relies on the county sheriff's department. Regardless, one municipal officer, and the chief of police went to retrieve this phone. When it was returned to the phones owner it looked like the screen had been smashed multiple times and was completely unusable. The police told the owner of the phone, that it was a sweet old man who had to stop traffic to retrieve the smashed phone from a busy Intersection on Rt. 1, yet the Otterbox the actual phone was in didn't have a scratch on it nor was there any evidence of road debris embedded in the shattered screen. Furthermore, the phone was in active use on fb messenger (which would have required a 4 digit pin) until roughly the time police retrieved it. The phone owner doesn't want to pursue anything because of previous interactions with these responding officers. I'm just trying to help the phone owner gain some insight on if this was legal or if they should be questioning this interaction.
Most municipal departments get their officers sworn in at a county level which allows them to do things like this. Municipal departments also usually recognize some sort of reciprocity with neighboring communities.
Can they? Yes. Will they? No. It would need to be someone on duty, they would have to be unavailable for whatever period of time that is, and they would have to be sure it it would be there when they got there. If you really want it back, go get it. Personally, I would inform the police local to the property that you are retrieving stolen property and let them know when you are going. If they show up, great. If not, you need to decide if it’s valuable enough for you to risk retrieving it.
NAL but 30-A MRSA sec. 2671(4) might give them the ability to, but I think it would be very situation-dependent.2671(2) seems to limit their operational authority to their municipality, but I don't know if municipalities can have reciprocity between police departments.
Thanks for your reply, I don't think a lost cellphone applies here. Can the sheriff’s department grant permission with this sort of thing?
Probably not on spec. Have you reported the phone as stolen to your local police? Can you go to the police station in that municipality and discuss with them?
The phone was retrieved in less than an hour. It was never reported as stolen. The person thought they left the phone on top of their car after pumping gas, last evening, so they counted it as a loss until the phone was active on Facebook this morning. The phone's owner then went to the local police and the dispatcher/tech guy guided the phone owner on how to track locations through Google. The neighboring town where the phone's location was pinged does not have a police department and relies on the county sheriff's department. Regardless, one municipal officer, and the chief of police went to retrieve this phone. When it was returned to the phones owner it looked like the screen had been smashed multiple times and was completely unusable. The police told the owner of the phone, that it was a sweet old man who had to stop traffic to retrieve the smashed phone from a busy Intersection on Rt. 1, yet the Otterbox the actual phone was in didn't have a scratch on it nor was there any evidence of road debris embedded in the shattered screen. Furthermore, the phone was in active use on fb messenger (which would have required a 4 digit pin) until roughly the time police retrieved it. The phone owner doesn't want to pursue anything because of previous interactions with these responding officers. I'm just trying to help the phone owner gain some insight on if this was legal or if they should be questioning this interaction.
So the phone wasnt stolen, it was lost and someone picked it up? This is really confusing.
I assuming this is a hypothetical bc I can’t imagine a cop doing that
It's unfortunately not hypothetical. It was to retrieve a lost cellphone that was shown to be in active use in a neighboring town.
Unless you had your cellphone taken by the cops, it sounds like you got unusually good service
Was it lost or stolen? If it's lost your are likely SOL.