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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 659. Interstate or foreign shipments by carrier; State prosecutions
Whoever embezzles, steals, or unlawfully takes, carries away, or
conceals, or by fraud or deception obtains from any pipeline
system, railroad car, wagon, motortruck, or other vehicle, or from
any tank or storage facility, station, station house, platform or
depot or from any steamboat, vessel, or wharf, or from any
aircraft, air terminal, airport, aircraft terminal or air
navigation facility with intent to convert to his own use any goods
or chattels moving as or which are a part of or which constitute an
interstate or foreign shipment of freight, express, or other
property; or
Whoever buys or receives or has in his possession any such goods
or chattels, knowing the same to have been embezzled or stolen; or
Whoever embezzles, steals, or unlawfully takes, carries away, or
by fraud or deception obtains with intent to convert to his own use
any baggage which shall have come into the possession of any common
carrier for transportation in interstate or foreign commerce or
breaks into, steals, takes, carries away, or conceals any of the
contents of such baggage, or buys, receives, or has in his
possession any such baggage or any article therefrom of whatever
nature, knowing the same to have been embezzled or stolen; or
Whoever embezzles, steals, or unlawfully takes by any fraudulent
device, scheme, or game, from any railroad car, bus, vehicle,
steamboat, vessel, or aircraft operated by any common carrier
moving in interstate or foreign commerce or from any passenger
thereon any money, baggage, goods, or chattels, or whoever buys,
receives, or has in his possession any such money, baggage, goods,
or chattels, knowing the same to have been embezzled or stolen -
Shall in each case be fined under this title or imprisoned not
more than ten years, or both; but if the amount or value of such
money, baggage, goods or chattels does not exceed $1,000, he shall
be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or
both.
The offense shall be deemed to have been committed not only in
the district where the violation first occurred, but also in any
district in which the defendant may have taken or been in
possession of the said money, baggage, goods, or chattels.
The carrying or transporting of any such money, freight, express,
baggage, goods, or chattels in interstate or foreign commerce,
knowing the same to have been stolen, shall constitute a separate
offense and subject the offender to the penalties under this
section for unlawful taking, and the offense shall be deemed to
have been committed in any district into which such money, freight,
express, baggage, goods, or chattels shall have been removed or
into which the same shall have been brought by such offender.
To establish the interstate or foreign commerce character of any
shipment in any prosecution under this section the waybill or other
shipping document of such shipment shall be prima facie evidence of
the place from which and to which such shipment was made. The
removal of property from a pipeline system which extends interstate
shall be prima facie evidence of the interstate character of the
shipment of the property.
A judgment of conviction or acquittal on the merits under the
laws of any State shall be a bar to any prosecution under this
section for the same act or acts. Nothing contained in this section
shall be construed as indicating an intent on the part of Congress
to occupy the field in which provisions of this section operate to
the exclusion of State laws on the same subject matter, nor shall
any provision of this section be construed as invalidating any
provision of State law unless such provision is inconsistent with
any of the purposes of this section or any provision thereof.
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