You bought a generator off Facebook Marketplace for half what it was worth. A month later, a deputy is at your door with a serial number. You did not steal anything, and now you are being told you might be charged anyway. That is possession of stolen property under California Penal Code 496, and the whole case turns on one word in the statute: knowing.
What Penal Code 496 makes a crime
PC 496(a) covers five things you can do with property that was stolen or obtained by theft or extortion: buy it, receive it, conceal it, sell it, or withhold it from the owner. Any one of those is enough. But the statute adds a condition to every one of them: you have to have done it knowing the property was stolen.
That knowledge element is what separates a crime from a bad purchase. The DA has to prove you knew. Not that you should have known, not that a careful person would have asked more questions. Knew. Prosecutors prove it with circumstances rather than confessions: a price far below market, a seller who would not say where the item came from, a scratched-off serial number, a monogram that does not match the seller’s name, or your own texts. A jury can infer knowledge from facts like that. But the inference is the DA’s burden, not yours.
Possession does not mean the item was in your hand. If it is in your garage, your truck, or a storage unit you rent, that counts. So does control through paperwork, like a contract that gives you the right to a shipment.
The rule is different if you are a dealer
There is one group that does have a duty to ask questions. Under PC 496(b), a swap meet vendor, a pawn or secondhand dealer, or anyone whose principal business is buying and selling merchandise commits a misdemeanor if they buy or receive stolen property worth more than $950 under circumstances that should have prompted a reasonable inquiry, and they did not make one.
So the same bracelet produces two different cases. A vendor at the Bakersfield swap meet who takes a monogrammed gold bracelet at a third of its value and asks nothing can be charged under 496(b) for failing to inquire. The customer who buys it from that vendor can only be charged under 496(a) if the DA can prove she actually knew it was stolen. The suspicious facts are evidence against her, but they are not a separate duty.
What you are facing
| Property | Statute | Charge level | Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stolen property worth $950 or less | PC 496(a) | Misdemeanor, unless you have a super-strike prior or must register under PC 290 | Up to 1 year county jail |
| Stolen property worth more than $950 | PC 496(a) | Wobbler | Misdemeanor: up to 1 year county jail. Felony: 16 months, 2 or 3 years under PC 1170(h) |
| A stolen car, trailer, boat, or construction or farm equipment, at any value | PC 496d | Wobbler | Misdemeanor: up to 1 year and $1,000. Felony: 16 months, 2 or 3 years and up to $10,000 |
| More than $950 of stolen store merchandise held to sell, trade or return | PC 496.6 | Wobbler | Same ranges as 496(a); values can be added up over two years |
| Dealer who fails to make reasonable inquiry on property over $950 | PC 496(b) | Misdemeanor | Up to 6 months county jail |
A wobbler is a charge the DA can file either way. Since January 1, 2026, under Assembly Bill 321, the judge can reduce a wobbler to a misdemeanor at any point before trial, which is often the first motion in a 496 case where the value is close to the line.
Two more rules in the statute matter:
- You cannot be convicted twice for the same item. PC 496(a) says no one may be convicted of both stealing property and receiving the same property. Prosecutors sometimes charge both and let a jury pick. They cannot keep both.
- The owner can sue you. PC 496(c) lets anyone injured by a violation bring a civil action for three times their actual damages, plus costs and attorney fees. That claim does not depend on a criminal conviction. A business that lost $20,000 in equipment can come after $60,000.
Defenses, framed the way they work in court
In a 496 case the defense does not prove innocence. It shows the DA cannot prove an element. The ones that come up most:
- No proof of knowledge. You bought a used phone at a fair price from a seller with a normal story. Nothing about the deal should have told you it was stolen. This is the defense in most Marketplace and OfferUp cases.
- No proof you possessed it. The item was in a shared house, a borrowed truck, or a unit several people had keys to. Being near stolen property is not possessing it.
- You were trying to return it. Say a stolen laptop turns up under a chair on your porch. You open it looking for a name, find nothing, and take it to the police station. That is the opposite of withholding it from the owner, and the DA will rarely file.
- It was not stolen. The DA has to prove the property was actually taken by theft or extortion. A civil dispute over who owns a trailer is not a theft.
- Value is wrong. On a 496(a) case the line between misdemeanor and wobbler is $950. The DA’s number is often retail; the item’s actual value when you received it is what counts.
Stolen property cases in Kern County
In Bakersfield these cases are heard at the Kern County Superior Court Metropolitan Division on Truxtun Avenue. Two local patterns stand out.
The first is farm equipment. The Sheriff’s Office Rural Crime Investigation Unit works a steady run of stolen tractors, trailers, fuel and irrigation parts across Shafter, Wasco, Buttonwillow and Arvin, and when they recover a stolen Kubota on someone’s property in Lamont, the owner of that property gets charged under PC 496d whether or not they stole it. The question in those cases is almost always knowledge: what the seller said, what you paid, and whether you kept paperwork.
The second is the resale case. Someone buys pallets of merchandise with the security tags still on and lists them online. Since 2025, that is PC 496.6, and under Prop 36 the DA can add up every transaction over two years to clear the $950 line.
If you are facing either one, the time to talk to a theft crime attorney in Bakersfield is before you explain yourself to the detective. The explanation that feels helpful, “I figured it was probably hot but the price was good,” is the entire case.
Quick answers
Is possession of stolen property a felony in California?
It can be. Property worth $950 or less is a misdemeanor for most people. Over $950, and for any stolen vehicle or equipment under PC 496d, the DA can file a felony. Prior theft history and the facts of the sale usually decide which way.
Can you be charged if you did not know it was stolen?
You can be charged, but the DA has to prove you knew at trial. Not knowing is not a technicality; it is the whole defense. Dealers and swap meet vendors are the exception, since PC 496(b) requires them to ask questions on property over $950.
What if I bought it on Facebook Marketplace or OfferUp?
Keep the listing, the messages and the payment record. They are your evidence of what you knew and what you paid. If an officer contacts you, hand the item over and say you want to speak with a lawyer before answering questions.
Can a possession of stolen property charge be dismissed?
Yes. A misdemeanor 496 charge qualifies for judge-ordered diversion under Penal Code 1001.95, and a conviction can later be dismissed under Penal Code 1203.4 after probation, which is the process people call expungement in California. Returning the property and paying any loss early makes both more likely, and the same four routes that get a petty theft charge dropped apply here.
Talk to a Bakersfield defense attorney
A PC 496 case lives or dies on what the DA can show you knew. If you have been contacted about stolen property in Kern County, or already charged, contact the Law Office of David L. Faulkner for a free consultation before you talk to anyone else about where the item came from.
