Q: Given permission to use and store tools in someone's garage. Now he says he has thrown them away. Need legal advice.
We came to pick up the tools when he texted my girlfriend, his sister, that he had taken them to the dumpster. I was never notified to pick them up before or that my keeping them there was no longer allowed. We had used the garage for tool access and making furniture. He had never asked for payment for use of it.
When I stepped out of the car to ask him about the location of my tools, he was uncooperative and threatened to call the police for trespassing. At this point we left when we could not see them outside anywhere. There were four of us present when he came outside. Myself, my girlfriend, the sister and the father. They came to help carry the tools and toolbox.
This is an apartment complex where the family used to stay. He has recently kicked his mother out of the house and now appears to have thrown away my tools which I collected for 11 years. What are my legal options in Houston, and what kind of attorney should I seek out?
A: You might be able to sue him in small claims court, but this does not sound like a matter of criminal law unless there was some way to show this was his plan all along.
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