I recently rented a NINTENDO wii AND A PLAYSTATION 3 AT SHOWPLACE, for a good friend of mine. the game systems are in my name as far as the paper work goes. the deal was i rent them in my name and my friend would make the payments. The district manager of showplace recently called me and said that the very first payment was defaulted on, and no payment has been made, so they want me to pay 600 dollars for the missed payments and late fees, or return both systems immediately. they told me that they have turned this over to their attorney for prosecution. They informed me that i will be prosecuted for two counts of felony theft! i can not find my friend or the systems and i don't have 600 dollars that i can spare. I guess my question is, does anyone know if i can actually be charged with two counts of felony theft over this? Another one of my friends told me that he went through a similar situation and that it will only be turned over to a debt collection company. but, i have no clue what can or can not happen. any sort of factual feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Although while you are screwed if they're in your name...you
will be held legally responsible, they rarely come after you in litigation. It would cost ten times that amount to come after
you for that "small amount"-they will however turn it over to
the collection and credit agencies and hound you incessantly
for the balance due. I would inform them of the details of the
situation, in writing, and any witnesses you have to the agreement
with your friend, keep copies of everything, and try to find this
guy to get the systems back to turn in. If you have anyone that
can verify the deal, and that he actually had the systems, and
would be willing to stand up for you, take them to small claims
court when found if he says he doesn't have them. Best of luck,
this kind of thing really sucks, and just adds to the evergrowing
wariness of helping others.

file a police report and report your friend as the thief. if you can get it back you can return the equipment.

By the way, I have a sick kid in the hospital and was wondering if you could loan me $5000 till my next pay day i can pay you back later.

Seriously, what in the hell possessed you to stick your neck out like that? Friends or not, if they could not afford their own WHY did yo do something so foolish? Now if your friend is a tweaker chances are they sold it off to support the monkey!

find a wall,



And then call the police and have them send a service officer to your house and tell the officer what is up. File a theft report and let them do their job.

my concern is the total value of both game systems(coming from showplace) is around $1500.00. and i was informed that anything over $500.00 is a felony. i do not want anything like that to follow me around for the rest of my life, and i really don't want to go to prison over some damn game systems!

i was just tryin to help out a buddy. and i talked to the police and they told me that the circumstances didn't matter, that i am responsible for it. they said it would be just as easy for me to have made up that story, to try and get out of it. i guess i just have too much faith in people.

Sorry to to say but you are responsible for paying for the Nintendo wii and Playstation 3 at Showplace. Youuuuuuuuuuu rented the Nintendo and Playstation 3 not your friend. Was very stupid of you to do that.

you need to somehow look up this friend and squeeze them hard. You might be able to offer them $400 and tell them that is all you can give them to close the matter. $600, yeouch!

I agree...OUCH!

you won't go to prison over it, at best, it will wind up as a default on your credit for 7 years...

600 dollars will only catch me up on the payments. the payments are 41 days past due and thats around 160 dollars for the payments and 440 dollars for late fees! not to mention the remainder of whats owed on both which is well over a thousand dollars!

go to the pawn shop and spend 300 dollars on 2 more units and give them those...

I'm guessing you figured this out already, but you should never put your name on the line for anybody! Apparently there's a reason he didn't do it himself! Getting charged with felony theft is probably a reach and he has nothing to do with that anyway. That would be up to the D.A. (if they can prove the systems are even worth enough for your jurisdiction). He's just using that as a scare tactic. I'm not too sure that a $440 late fee on a balance of $160 is even legal! Chances are that they'll just keep hounding you until they report it to their collection agency. Then they'll keep hounding you and eventually wreck your credit. You pretty much have 3 options. 1. Find your friend and have him pay the piper! 2. Since the cops wont do anything, you'll probably end up having to sue your "friend". 3. See if Showplace will take a 'lower' payment in full or if you can buy two other systems elsewhere to replace it and still settle on a lower payment just to end it. Just try to resolve it before it wrecks your credit!

And people wonder what that 'little piece of paper' means when you get married, it is a legal contract just like the one you signed.

And yes YOU are responsible for the money/items.

Best of luck.

i was told if i filed a theft report that the insurance would cover the items, but i was also told the insurance was only good if the payments were up to date.

ya do not sign **** for nobody my brother..............



lesson learned!!

I'm sure you know your friend frist and last name if so and you should know , small claims court is the way to go in trying to recover your money..., Let this be a lesson learned.., "Soft Hearts Makes Empty Pockets"

$1500 to play games? Holy God! Does the console give you a blowj*b at least?

I would probably take three simple steps if I were in your position.

1: track down that "friend" or his closest relative (hopefully his mama...I have a message for ________ could you give it to him? Then sucker punch that person in the mouth with some brass knuckles.....your buddy will definitely get that message.

2: plead no contest and either pay it out and do probation with felony theft on your record for the rest of your life (not eligible for jury duty so there IS an upside). Or serve it out in county and still have it on your record and meet new friends who aint actually gay but still want a bj.

3: Kick my own *** for risking $1,500 on GAMES!!!!! There is NO game on this whole damned planet that I would drop that kind of money on......"But, its a cool game...you get to push buttons and s**t talk your friends........."


Seriously man........go kick your own @ss

I mostly agree. I'm not sure where he got the $1500 from, but that is a decent chunk of change at your age. For that matter, for most people. Especially for GAMES! You shoulda known from the beginning when he didn't ask you to sign for one, but TWO! Who the he11 needs two different ones? At once even! The newest game system I have is a Gamecube with a whole 4-5 games that collects dust (even though Simpsons Hit and Run is a ball). My next newer system is a Sega from the early-mid 90's (that I got used for about $75 with around 12 games). lol I've played on the Wii and PS3 before and, yes, there are some cool games, but I wouldn't put out that kind of cash for it! If you have it to spare, a couple hundred $ to own, ok. But when there's inflated costs like you say, %$#@ that!

Krupa is right about jury duty. If for some chance you do get convicted of a felony you don't have to worry about ever going. Or carrying(or possibly owning) a gun. Or getting a decent job. Or countless other things.

You likely won't end up with a felony or jail time, but it's up to you to pay up. The sooner the better. BTW, if you WOULD get nailed for theft that doesn't dismiss the money YOU owe.