§31-2-31. Sale, pawn; purchase or unauthorized retention of military property; seizure, etc., of unlawfully retained property.

Any person who sells, pawns, purchases, retains or has in his possession or custody, without right, any military property belonging to this state or the United States, or any unit of the armed forces of the state, and who, after proper demand, refuses to deliver the same to any officer entitled to take possession thereof, is guilty of a misdemeanor if the value of such property is $500.00 or less, and is guilty of a felony if the value of such property exceeds $500.00. Any person belonging to the armed forces of the state who, contrary to the order of the proper officer, retains in his possession or control any military property of this state or of the United States is guilty of a misdemeanor if the value of such property is $500.00 or less, and is guilty of a felony if the value of such property exceeds $500.00. Any commanding officer may take possession of such military property mentioned in this section wherever the same may be found, and upon conviction of either such misdemeanor or felony, the guilty party shall be fined a sum equal to double the value of the articles in question. When a commander knows the whereabouts of any such person unlawfully retaining such property, he may make a written request on the sheriff of the county in which the person may be located to seize such property, giving a full description of such property, and any sheriff receiving such a request shall promptly seize such property, if the person and the property be found in his county, and forward the same to the officer making the request. The sheriff or other officer making such seizure shall be entitled to receive compensation therefor as for like service in civil cases, together with necessary expenses of transporting such property, the same to be paid in the same manner as provided for other fees in Section 31-2-106; provided, however, that any person claiming lawful possession or ownership of property thus seized may at any time within six months bring suit for the recovery thereof, or its monetary value, against the officer directing its seizure. Such suit may be brought either in the county of seizure or in the county where the defendant resides, but such property shall not be restored to such claimant until after final judgment in his favor, unless he makes bond with sufficient surety for double the value of the property involved.

(Acts 1939, No. 509, p. 774; Code 1940, T. 35, §§30, 31; Acts 1973, No. 1038, p. 1572, §§31, 32.)