The courts have repeatedly held that a bona fide purchaser can acquire no title to goods purchased from the felon who has stolen the same, and that the owner may recover the goods, or their value if the innocent purchaser has resold the goods to one in good faith, and the property has passed beyond the reach of the owner.13 There is no difference in principle between the recovery of the property from the person in whose possession it may be found, and the recovery of its value from one who has bought it and sold it.

It has been contended that in order to recover from the innocent purchaser in an action of trover, that a prosecution and conviction of the thief should be had, but the general holding on this proposition, except where the goods are sold in market overt (which rule of law is not applicable to the United States), is that the right in the owner to sue without prosecution of the thief is fairly established.14

The fact that the owner has his remedy against the thief, would not interfere with his right to claim his property in the hands of another.