Arizona v. Hicks

A bullet was fired through the floor of Hicks’ apartment, injuring a man in the apartment below. Police officers arrived and entered Hicks’ apartment to search for the shooter, victims, and weapons. The officers found and seized three weapons, including a sawed-off rifle.

While in Hicks’ apartment, an officer noticed two sets of expensive stereo components, “which seemed out of place in the squalid and otherwise ill-appointed apartment.” Suspecting that they were stolen, the officer read and recorded their serial numbers, moving some of the components, including a turntable, in order to do so. The officer contacted his headquarters with this information and was told that the turntable had been taken in an armed robbery. The officer immediately seized the turntable. It was later determined that some of the other serial numbers matched those on other stereo equipment taken in the same armed robbery. Officers obtained a warrant and seized those items as well.