The only one I feel sorry for is the Junk yard who will now get sued …
What in the world are you talking about ?
In the current crazy days, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that junk yards buying cats, have enticed folks to steal them. Thus an indirect cause of the guy’s death. If the yard wasn’t paying big bucks for the cats, people wouldn’t be stealing them. Going a little further, you could even involve the investors setting the price for precious metals. Nothing is impossible anymore if you are paying attention,
As to junk yards, in my neck of the woods, they aren’t allowed to sell cats
They cut them out before putting the car out for the scavengers
If the junk yards buy cats, I wouldn’t know about that. But I’m quite certain that many of the metal recycling yards do buy cats, and probably without asking any questions whatsoever
Lately we’ve had quite a few of our vehicles come in with the cats not quite removed, because the thieves apparently got scared off before sawing all the way through and actually dropping the cats
In those cases, one of my colleagues likes to weld them back together, thus saving our fleet considerable money
Even though the rising price of the precious metals might explain the increased theft, it doesn’t make it okay
As others have pointed out, it would be better to just use your energy to work a real job . . . in my opinion . . . and at the same time not risk getting a criminal record
I wouldn’t want to be job hunting if I had a theft on my record
If an employer has 2 candidates for an open position, and they’re otherwise identical, except that one of them has a theft on his record, guess which one they’ll probably hire . . . 
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I’m not into employment law but I think that has become a question that can’t be asked anymore. At least in Minnesota there was the “check the box” issue where you couldn’t have the box to be checked with the question “have you ever been arrested?” Of course as we know there is a difference between being arrested and being convicted, and a difference in being convicted and being actually guilty.
From near my neighborhood…
From a local news report comes news of a trial involving another dumb criminal story of an attempted armed theft of a Mercedes Benz, foiled by ignorance and resulting in justice being served.
Man convicted of following Longboat Key couple home, trying to steal their car
I do not find being held at gunpoint and robbed to be amusing. Seriously, it had to be absolutely terrifying! I am not making light of it.
But, don’t you take some delight in the outcome, Justice being served (including the crash, multiple dog bites from a K-9 unit, arrest, and possible life sentence)?
CSA
It is not illegal to do background checks prior to offering employment. So even in states where it may be illegal to ask such questions verbally or in writing it is not all that difficult for anyone to research a person’s background.
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Every once in a while I see a facebook post offering to buy cat’s. Have not seen one in a while. This is from a major recycler
As for criminal records, to become a volunteer firefighter you have to pass a criminal and child abuse background check. If you got busted for stealing cats or anything else there is no way to get on with a dept.
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Actually we were renting a condo in Florida for this year (had to pass though), but the HOA had to do a background check on everyone that would be staying there. I assume having any of those boxes checked would mean you’d have to pitch a tent somewhere.
Today is cartoon day and it would be really fun to go on but exploding heads are not a pleasant sight.
To become a rec league basketball, football or baseball coach you have to pass a criminal and sex offender background check. And about every other year when I helped run our towns youth basketball league we’d get some guy on the sex offenders list trying to become a coach.
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Public school teachers, and anyone involved with the schools, too. And nursery school teachers. I’d say other private school teachers, too, but I don’t know for sure. I’ve had to go through background checks for employment for decades, and they always ask about criminal records. I don’t know whether a record precludes employment though.
Exactly!
Even though “the question” has been deleted from job applications in many states, that hasn’t eliminated background checks. And, in the states where “the question” hasn’t been eliminated, I would be willing to bet that employers still check for a criminal record even if somebody answered “no”.
A misdemeanor may turn into an employment problem if somebody lies on the job application by checking “no”. In other words, an employer may be willing to ignore a long-ago conviction on a minor charge, but lying on the job application is a valid reason for rejection.
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I retired from education after a career of 35 years, and after going back to college again and earning my Paralegal certification, I applied for a position with my state’s child protective agency. Even though my Paralegal position did not include any contact with children, I had to be fingerprinted and have my prints run through both the FBI database and the State Police database.
Since we’ve gone pretty far off topic already, I might add another thing . . .
If considering applying for ANYTHING of any importance, it might be wise to spend a few bucks to run a background check on yourself
As was mentioned before, it might be possible to have something in your background that happened so many decades ago, that you completely forgot about it
Or there might simply be errors, which you will definitely need to take care
When I applied for US citizenship a few years ago, before I submitted anything, I ran a background check on myself, to see if anything came up that I’d forgotten about
When a “blank slate” came back, I immediately submitted my paperwork and it went through easily . . . but it obviously took over a year from beginning to end . . . without even getting a lawyer involved, which I had been prepared to do, but it wasn’t necessary, after all
My sister-in-law did the same thing when she applied to medical school years ago. She had a hazy memory of some incident from the distant past, but her memory was obviously not so good, because a “blank slate” came back and she had no more worries. She sailed through
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And if discovered later, it is usually grounds for termination no matter how minor the criminal offense was.
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When enlisting in the Army, there were about two full pages of organizations in small type that you had to certify you were never involved in or a member of. I think I’ve got a copy in the file. Never ever heard of 90% of them. Not a problem for me. I’m not a joiner or public protester, but for others in the universities of the 60’s, they quite possibly were easily part of one or more of those subversive groups. It was reported also that some folks had their neighbors visited by officials asking questions about character and activities. Also a Sheriff’s background check was also part of it with full fingerprints. Of course this was 1970, so it looks like might have flipped 180 now.
It gets hard even giving references. Guy terminated for showing up drunk He was a great programmer, and I attested to his skills as such, as far as other questions, you will have to contact the personnel office. Well he got hired, one month in lady was like you were right, he has great programming skills. 3 months later did you have absentee and showing up late problems, sorry you will haveto contact the personnel office for that info. So if you need to give a bad recommendation, Nobody would be better 
Exactly. We were told to not even answer that. Only confirm dates worked. I’d never tell anyone anything. They’ll just have to read Linkedin and court reports or something. After I was hired, I found out my new boss had called the Plant Manager of my old place to ask about me. I just thought it was a little off handed. Thing is the Plant Manager had three rules, the first of which is if you ever leave, you will never come back. So telling the guy I was interviewing put me in a little bit of a pinch. Not a big deal I guess, we went to the same church and had a good relationship. Life was different in 1974 though.
Back in the good old days, I could call previous employers, i imagine this works for shop to keep it car related also. Would you hire that person again if they applied. Yes or no was all I needed. Then again as F&B director, 1 month in, I wanted salt and peppers cleaned and filled at the end of every shift. Head waitress, pet of the inkeeper said hell no, we are not doing that. Now she was a great person and told me hey when the cooks show up late I start the grills and get stuff going. I said I don’t care, if the cook shows up late, that is a different problem, either you work with me or you don’t. She said screw you and walked off. Of course we managed just fine. 3 months later she came begging for her job back. First question are you going to work with me? She said yes I am sorry, I have been doing little jobs here and there, and I am not making enough money to support my daughter as I am a single mother. I said we have a new head waitress, but I appreciate all that you have done in the past and you can start back again as a waitress next week. She accepted and worked out fine after that. Boy did I hear it from above for hiring her back, but I survived. Thanks for listening.