Re: Cheney's Halliburton to Control Iraqi Oil?

On Saturday 10 May 2003 8:06 pm, Timothy R. Butler wrote:
> > why would you quote a misquote? the actual phrase is "possession is
> > nine parts of the law." as to whether this comprises more or less
> > than 90 percent of it depends on how many parts the law has, though
> > i've never heard of anyone who limited it to 10.
>
>   Huh, I learned something new today. I've always heard it the way Andreas
> put it. Of course, neither is actually correct in practice... I think no
> matter how much I might "possess" my neighbor's car, the Police would still
> come after me. ;-)

I have a true story about this about the son of a friend of my father, who 
from hereon I will call 'Bob' for convenience.

Bob was a keen cyclist, and quite a few years ago purchased a new, fairly 
expensive bike which was stolen about a week later. Since Bob's father hadn't 
arranged any insurance, they weren't able to replace the bike and Bob had to 
go without.

A few days after it was stolen, Bob went shopping and noticed a bike that 
looked similar to his on a market stall. Asking to see it, he examined it to 
discover that it was, in fact, his bike, being sold for well under what he 
paid for it. He told his father, who called the police, who arrived at the 
scene, only to inform Bob that he would have to prove that the bike belonged 
to him before anything could be done about it. Of course, he had the receipt, 
but nothing to indicate that this particular bike was his, except for the 
fact that he was certain that it was[*].

The solution to the problem came when Bob's father simply stole the bike back 
from the market trader in full view of the police officer and stated that now 
the trader would have to prove that the bike was his in order to legally 
claim it back. Accepting the truth of this statement, the officer allowed Bob 
to take the bike home. The market trader never claimed it back.

[*] There was perhaps a slight scratch or other mark, I can't remember the 
full details. Rest assured it was definitely Bob's bike, there was no 
mistake.

-- 
dan

"Were i susceptible to having my mind changed, it would have changed my mind" 
- Matthew Parris

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