What Happens If You Steal Military Property
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Stealing military property is charged as larceny under Article 121 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The charge requires proof of an intent to deprive or defraud the owner permanently of the property’s use and benefit, or to appropriate it permanently to the accused’s own use or someone else’s. The accused does not have to keep the item. Larceny of military property worth more than $1,000, or of any military firearm, explosive, motor vehicle, aircraft, or vessel, carries a maximum of 10 years of confinement and a dishonorable discharge. The same taking with only an intent to deprive the owner temporarily is the lesser offense of wrongful appropriation. A member who sells or gives away issued gear without taking it from anyone can instead be charged under Article 108. Intent, value, and the kind of item set the exposure, and paying for the item afterward does not undo a completed larceny.
Larceny or Wrongful Appropriation: The Intent Question
The Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (2024 ed.), Part IV, paragraph 64, sets out larceny’s elements. The accused “wrongfully took, obtained, or withheld certain property from the possession of the owner or of any other person”. The property “belonged to a certain person” and had some value. The act was done “with the intent permanently to deprive or defraud another person of the use and benefit of the property or permanently to appropriate the property”. When military property is alleged, the government must also prove “That the property was military property.”
Wrongful appropriation has the same elements, with one difference: the intent was “temporarily to deprive”. The Manual says “In all other respects wrongful appropriation and larceny are identical”, and gives as an example taking another’s car “with intent to drive it a short distance and then return it”.
Larceny can also happen without a taking. Paragraph 64 explains that withholding includes a failure “to return, account for, or deliver property to its owner when a return, accounting, or delivery is due, even if the owner has made no demand for the property,” or “devoting property to a use not authorized by its owner.” Keeping issued equipment after it is due back can therefore support the charge.
What Does Not Excuse a Larceny
The Manual closes two arguments that come up in these cases:
- “An intent to pay for or replace the stolen property is not a defense, even if that intent existed at the time of the theft.” The Manual’s exception is money, or a negotiable instrument with no special value above its face value: taking it with the intent to return an equivalent amount of money is not larceny, although it may be wrongful appropriation.
- “Once a larceny is committed, a return of the property or payment for it is no defense.”
Both can still matter to how a command handles the case and to the sentence. Neither erases the offense.
What Counts as “Military Property”
“Military property” has a narrower meaning than government property. Paragraph 64 says it “is all property, real or personal, owned, held, or used by one of the armed forces of the United States”, and that “While all military property is Government property, not all Government property is military property.” The distinction matters at sentencing. Military property over $1,000 carries a 10-year maximum. Other property over $1,000 carries five years.
Value is “a question of fact to be determined on the basis of all of the evidence admitted.” For items “issued or procured from Government sources,” the Manual says the official price list for the item at the time of the theft is admissible as evidence of value, once the item’s condition is shown to match.
When the Property Was Issued to You: Article 108
Article 108 covers selling, disposing of, damaging, destroying, or losing military property “without proper authority”. It applies where nothing was taken from another person, such as selling issued night-vision equipment online. The MCM, Part IV, paragraph 43, says “It is immaterial whether the property sold, disposed, destroyed, lost, or damaged had been issued to the accused, to someone else, or even issued at all.” For this paragraph, “the term ‘explosive’ includes ammunition.”
Maximum Punishments and Sentencing Categories
| Offense | Maximum punishment (MCM 2024) | App. 12C category, App. 12B range |
|---|---|---|
| Larceny, property of $1,000 or less (para. 64) | bad-conduct discharge, total forfeitures, 1 year | Category 1, 0 to 12 months |
| Larceny, military property over $1,000 or any military motor vehicle, aircraft, vessel, firearm, or explosive | dishonorable discharge, total forfeitures, 10 years | Category 2, 1 to 36 months |
| Larceny, other property over $1,000 or any non-military motor vehicle, aircraft, vessel, firearm, or explosive | dishonorable discharge, total forfeitures, 5 years | Category 2, 1 to 36 months |
| Wrongful appropriation, $1,000 or less | 3 months, two-thirds pay for 3 months | Category 1, 0 to 12 months |
| Wrongful appropriation, over $1,000 | bad-conduct discharge, total forfeitures, 1 year | Category 1, 0 to 12 months |
| Wrongful appropriation of any motor vehicle, aircraft, vessel, firearm, explosive, or military property over $1,000 | dishonorable discharge, total forfeitures, 2 years | Category 1, 0 to 12 months |
| Selling or disposing of military property, $1,000 or less (para. 43) | bad-conduct discharge, total forfeitures, 1 year | Category 1, 0 to 12 months |
| Selling or disposing of military property over $1,000, or any firearm or explosive | dishonorable discharge, total forfeitures, 10 years | Category 2, 1 to 36 months |
The categories apply to offenses committed after December 27, 2023. The $1,000 threshold divides the punishment tiers in both articles.
The Record and the Firearms Disability
A court-martial conviction for larceny is a federal criminal conviction. A dishonorable discharge is also a firearms disability under 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(6), which applies to a person “who has been discharged from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions”.
Questions That Shape the Defense
- What was the intent at the moment of the taking or withholding: permanent or temporary? The answer separates larceny from wrongful appropriation.
- Is the item “military property” under the Manual’s definition, or other government property?
- How was value proven, and does the official price reflect the item’s condition at the time?
- Was the item issued to the member and then sold or disposed of? If so, the government may charge Article 108 instead of, or alongside, Article 121.
Sources
- 10 U.S.C. 921, Article 121, Larceny and wrongful appropriation (Cornell LII)
- 10 U.S.C. 908, Article 108, Military property of United States, loss, damage, destruction, or wrongful disposition (Cornell LII)
- 18 U.S.C. 922, Unlawful acts (Cornell LII)
- Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (2024 ed.), Part IV, para. 43 (Article 108) and para. 64 (Article 121); Appendix 12B; Appendix 12C.
This guide explains how theft of military property is charged under the UCMJ and the 2024 Manual for Courts-Martial. It is general information and not legal advice about a particular investigation.