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Comment by ZoFreX | Hacker News Reader

I would guess that they seized all of the computers in the house. Where I live (the UK), that seems to be SOP for crimes involving computers - they take your computers, gaming consoles, ipods...

Oh, and you don't get them back.

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I remember that there is either a law or a royal-cort ruling in Finland that the confiscated HW needs to be returned in a timely manner back to the owner. So let's hope the little girl gets the winnie the pooh laptop back :)

Once investigations are complete you should have your property returned.

As absurd as it sounds, it does make sense to seize all property capable of storing data, and that includes games consoles, iPods, etc.

  > Once investigations are complete you should
  > have your property returned.

1. If they police never end up charging him, they will tend to keep the equipment indefinitely[1] 'just in case' they need to use it to charge him in the future. Even if they determined that no crime was committed.

2. There is a high likelihood of the equipment being returned in pieces with him having no recourse to sue the police for damages because they were broken 'during the course of the investigation.' Or maybe they were 'logged in as broken' even though they left his house in working order.

[1]: There also exists a high likelihood that they may 'walk out' of evidence and magically turn up in the hands of friends/family of police who are none-the-wiser about where it came from.

Should != would. And there's also such thing as forfeiture - and with it, to confiscate, the government has only to have "probable cause", and then you have to prove that this property was not used for criminal purposes. They do not need to charge the owner in any crime - just to suspect him.

"Should" is the important word in that sentence - there doesn't seem to be any guarantee, here.

I totally agree re: data storage, for serious crimes at least.

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