What happens if I unknowingly bought a stolen cellphone?

[yogicskier]

1. Buying ANYTHING in a WalMart parking lot (or any similar place) is a bad idea. Don't do that again.

2. It's also a good idea to know who you're buying from. Random/anonymous people selling stuff are not only untrustworthy but might be dangerous. Quite likely he was a junkie looking to finance his next high. People like that have been known to pull a knife on you to get what they want--I'm not saying that this guy would have done that, but there's no way to tell.

3. There are lots of sites at the Google search below that can help you avoid buying stolen cell phones.

4. I doubt that the police will do anything to you. It seems pretty clear that you got snookered. Your best bet is to cooperate with the investigation. Give the cops all the information you can dig up: what the guy looked like, what kind of car he drove, any messages online that you can recover (maybe your old cell phone provider can help: give them the approximate date of the transaction and tell them what happened).