What do you think of this citizens arrest?

One more scenario for tonight.

http://www.kwch.com/content/news/Cou...489569541.html
Couple's video of 'citizen's arrest' spurs legal debate
Rachel SkyttaMon 6:12 PM, Jul 30, 2018

WICHITA, Kan. A Wichita couple makes a citizen's arrest and posts it on Facebook. The video generated thousands of views and started a legal debate.

Police say the man the couple confronts in the video was not responsible for the theft of their trucks, but the couple says they didn't know that at the time and feel they did the right thing, given the information they had.

The video shows the couple holding a man at gunpoint after they found him working on their stolen vehicles at a home in north Wichita.

The woman in the video, Nina Smith, says she and her husband reported two vehicles stolen Friday night. A tip from a friend led them to check a house the next morning near 30th and Jeanette.

"When we turned onto 30th Street, we could see the back of my Dodge pickup on blocks. So I jump out and I call 911," Smith says. "I find a gentleman bent over in my truck, working on something."

She says they believed this man was the thief.

"When you find your stolen vehicles and someone working on them, yeah, that's exactly what you think," she says.

Smith says the man reached into his pocket. That's when she and her husband drew their guns.

"I didn't know what he was reaching for, turned out it was a cell phone," Smith says.

Also, as it turns out, the man they encountered was a mechanic that police don't believe was involved with the vehicle thefts.

"If you're going to make a citizen's arrest, you better make sure that you have probable cause to believe the person committed a felony, or you saw them commit the felony before you do it," attorney Morgan O'Hara Gering says.

O'Hara Gering says Kansas law allows people to make a citizen's arrest if that have probable cause. But she says you run the risk of being sued, or hurt.

"It's best to call police, have them come over and handle it because you could put yourself in danger if you try to do a citizen's arrest as well," she says.

The couple who held the man at gunpoint after locating their stolen trucks say they got the vehicles back that same day. They say police called it a citizen's arrest and returned their guns, as well.

Smith says she believes she and her husband did the right thing in this situation. Wichita police did arrest a 38-year-old woman in connection with the stolen trucks..

How do they grade "receiving stolen property" in Kansas? Because he absolutely was in receipt of stolen property at the time, probably $20K or more in value, and the fact that he had BOTH of their stolen vehicles tends to narrow it down to "more likely than not complicit in the thefts".

I'd be interested in knowing what work he was doing on the trucks.

Sounds like a good arrest to me, they had the right trucks and they had the guy who was in illegal possession of them, and the cops seem to have sweated out the name of his accomplice, or at least his supplier.

If cops found me in possession of 2 trucks stolen from the same house, I can assure you that an arrest would ensue, and it would be up to me to explain myself.