Also known as: asportation · asportare · asportatus · carrying away
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An element of common law larceny consisting of the defendant's movement of all or part of the property, however slight, as part of the carrying away process.
Malik reaches into Jenna's open locker at the data center, grasps her laptop with both hands, and lifts it several inches off the shelf. Jenna enters the room and Malik drops the laptop back into place. The slight upward movement satisfies the carrying away requirement even though the laptop never left the locker.
A warehouse worker sees a trespasser begin to wheel a company dolly loaded with equipment toward the exit. The worker uses reasonable force to block the exit and prevent the dolly from being pushed any farther across the threshold. The initial rolling movement of the dolly constitutes carrying away.
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Quincy loads several crates of premium seed from Rhonda's barn into the bed of his pickup and drives them to his home. The act of lifting each crate from the barn floor and placing it in the truck bed satisfies the requirement that the property be moved, however slightly, during the carrying away.
Dr. Ruiz arranges for an unconscious patient to be sedated and flown from a hospital in Country X to a clinic in Country Y. The air ambulance's movement of the patient from one country into another completes the carrying away element.
A civilian employee removes spent shell casings from a military firing range and loads them into his vehicle intending to keep them. The act of lifting the casings from the range and placing them in the vehicle constitutes the carrying away of government property.
A boater whose vessel has broken loose in a storm enters a neighbor's beach to drag the boat above the high-tide line. The short distance the boat is pulled across the sand satisfies the carrying away element.
No. Any movement of the property, however slight, satisfies the element when done as part of carrying it away. The laptop need not leave the locker or the room.
Yes. The element focuses on whether movement occurred during the carrying away process, not on whether the defendant ultimately succeeds in removing the property from the scene.
Yes. Traditional common law kidnapping required forcible abduction or carrying away of a person from his own country into another country, so the movement across the border is the central element.
The taking element requires the defendant to obtain actual control over the property. Asportation requires subsequent movement of that property as part of carrying it away.
…A. 5th Cir.), to which the dissent below referred at some length. The appellant there was convicted of feloniously taking and carrying away certain personal property of the United States in violation of § 46 of the Criminal Code, 18 U. S. C. (1940 ed.) § 99, and had been sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment. He argued that…