State v. Langis
Oregon Supreme Court
444 P.2d 959 (1968)
Langis (defendant) and Richard Carrier (defendant) were hitchhiking and busing from Vancouver, British Columbia toward San Francisco, and near Eugene, Oregon, they stole a car to continue the roughly 500-mile trip south. Police caught them about 70 miles further south, near Rosenberg, Oregon. At trial, Carrier testified he intended to leave the car in Rosenberg in "perfect condition," but their actual destination remained San Francisco, hundreds of miles further. The trial court instructed the jury that intending to abandon the car in circumstances that would make its recovery by the owner "difficult or unlikely" was sufficient to show intent to permanently deprive the owner of it. Langis was convicted of vehicle larceny and appealed the instruction.
Whether the intent to take another's property by trespass, use it temporarily, and then abandon it may be evidence of intent to commit larceny.