Finders keepers? What kind of BS is that? Once the rightful owner is known, if you're brother doesn't turn it over, he is guilty of theft.
No one knew who the owner was dummy..
6 months later the junk was pawned, I assume the pawn shop was audited by the cops and only THEN THEY FIGURED OUT THE OWNER IDIOT...
How the hell do you think they found my brother???
Because he pawned it with his ID...
Nothing was stolen, nothing was reported stolen...
How can my brother give the ******* Ipod back when it's already in police possession??
What my brother did do is go down to the pawn shop and reimburse them for their loss out of honesty..
Something's not adding up. Where does reimbursing the pawn shop come in? That's stands in stark contrast from telling the police that this was an issue of finders keepers.
Here's the bottom line. Once the rightful owner was found, your brother had an obligation to either return the item or reimburse the pawn shop since I assume the pawn shop owners were not allowed to profit from any merchandise that shows up as either reported lost or stolen and was therefore not legally your brother's property to sell. He definitely should have cleared up any misunderstanding with the police instead of just blowing them off which is what it sounds like he did.
Personally, whenever I find something of value, I either turn it in to someone with the understanding that I can claim it later if the owner fails to come forward, or I put an ad on Craigslist. Maybe that's just me.
You're brother probably could have kept that Ipod forever without any repercussions because, let's face it, who's gonna know? But once your brother decided to sell the Ipod to a pawn shop (as opposed to a private party), and gave his ID as a condition of pawning the item, he was basically setting up the circumstances for something like this to happen. And once the Ipod was discovered to be reported lost and the police became involved, your brother should have bent over backwards to make sure everything was cleared up even IF it ended up costing him money in the process. To me, it sounds like your brother's childish attitude set everything in motion that ended happening later, and he pulled the rest of your family into the mess, as well.
If the police didn't have a valid warrant, AND if your father didn't put his hands on the cop, you guys have a valid complaint. But your whole family's attitude about the original matter of the Ipod is little more than a rationalization. Your brother made this all happen. You should all try to face that fact.