Have any of you had equipment not returned by someone you no longer work with?

I had a prior working/leasing agreement with another party who was using my authority. They were to reimburse me for any expenses incurred from their usage. To make a long story short, I found out they were pretty shady, and cut them off. Well, they have a few containers and chassis that they took out under my authority before I cut them off, and are not returning them to the terminals and chassis companies. They are not answering my calls and shut off their emails. At this point, would that constitute theft and a crime? Have any of you experienced anything similar?

 

I actually spoke to a lawyer a few days ago. I was receiving tons of detention bills from their usage and the attorney filed paperwork against them for the payments due. I didn't realize they still had equipment out under my authority until a few hours ago though. I received more notices and found out there is equipment that has not been returned yet. I'm going to be speaking to my attorney about it tomorrow, but am just pretty annoyed at the moment that people actually would do stuff like that.

 

The crazy thing is that it's not my equipment. These containers belong to the shipping companies and the chassis belong to the chassis leasing companies taken out under my authority. They are purposely not returning the equipment out of spite.

 

Oh yeah. I get it's my responsibility. I'm going to see what the attorney says, but at this point, I'm guessing I will end up filing a police report. And I will probably let the equipment company know as well. I'm hoping the added legal pressure will entice them to just promptly return the equipment and stop playing games.

 

Oh. I have witnesses, so hope that holds up