Why am I being arrested?

bobegubu · Post by **bobegubu** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 7:55 pm

I have just finished closing a gate and head in to Skingrad. After I visit a few shops, I head out of the city but just after I pass through the city gates, I am approached by a member of the city watch and accused of stealing. I didn't remember stealing anything but paid my fine anyway. I then headed back theough the city to get on my way but when I head through the city gates again, I am once again told to stop because I have stolen something.

This keeps happening to me so I'm stuck in a loop of leaving the city, get arrested, pay the fine, leave the city and get arrested again. It doesn't matter if I pay the fine do jail time or fight the guards. I haven't stolen anything and when I chek my stats, before I go through the city gate, I have a bounty of 0. I check my stats again just after appearing on the other side of the gate and still have a bounty of 0 but after a couple of seconds, guards approach me again and I notice that my bounty is now 1 and the whole cycle statrs again.

I have shutdown and restarted the game but it doesn't change anything.

Is there something I can do to stop this and just get on with the game?

Dyre Straits · Post by **Dyre Straits** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 12:44 am

Are you wearing anything that's stolen? Or, anything that can be seen as being stolen?

Try this: Inside the city gates, drop any and everything that shows up as stolen in your entire inventory. Save your game, and then go through the gates. See if you get arrested again.

Good luck!

Dowaco · Post by **Dowaco** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 7:16 am

This happens to me as well. Seemingly minding my own business and I get accosted by a city Guardsman and hit with a 1 or 2 gold coin fine. It might be for trespassing or breaking and entering. Sometimes I forget I am sneaking and touch someone to talk to them resulting in a pickpocket attempt rather than a conversation.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 7:49 am

If you enter a no trepass zone and are seen by somebody doing so, they will send out a general "report" to the guards. If your presence is confirmed, even if the guards don't get you, a bounty will be placed on your head. The system is more sophisticated than in Morrowind, but in my opinion, also more prone to error.

The Balance · Post by **The Balance** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 2:27 pm

[QUOTE=fable]If you enter a no trepass zone and are seen by somebody doing so, they will send out a general "report" to the guards. If your presence is confirmed, even if the guards don't get you, a bounty will be placed on your head. The system is more sophisticated than in Morrowind, but in my opinion, also more prone to error.[/QUOTE]
If you enter a no trepass area and get caught, your bounty wouldn't be of at least 5 drakes ?

can you confirm it, fable?
IMO there's something that doesn't add up...
I would try to steal something for real (or hit someone as well) and only then pay the fine...
there's no harm in trying...

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 3:29 pm

[QUOTE=The Balance]If you enter a no trepass area and get caught, your bounty wouldn't be of at least 5 drakes ?

can you confirm it, fable?[/QUOTE]

There are three kinds of zones: 1) you're permitted, 2) you're not permitted, but given a short grace period, and 3) you're absolutely forbidden any presence, and simply entering it is regarded as a crime. I can't confirm the exact bounty; I don't know them. But I do know that what I just wrote is true. So if you entered a Type 3 zone and were caught doing so, even at a distance, by somebody, they relayed the information to the guards. You might still have a chance to make it away safely, but if a second person corroborated your being there, or better still, a guard caught you (they start coming as soon somebody sees you), that's it.

bobegubu · Post by **bobegubu** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 7:21 pm

Fixed

Thanks for the replies. I took some of the advice and dropped everything I had on me to see how that went but it didn't help. I didn't travel anywhere but a couple of open shops so I can't see that I was tresspassing anywhere.

In the end I went back to a previous save from a couple of hours later and that did the trick but I still don't know what caused this to happen in the first place.

Dowaco · Post by **Dowaco** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 5:51 am

I just found this (google "oblivion glitches")

"...there is apparently a glitch involving attacking a horse that you own (which is quite possible in the heat of battle by mistake) leading to a bounty of one gold and violation of guild rules (it may also say that you were caught stealing from a thieves guild member if you are in the thieves guild). Looting critters with the horse nearby has also been reported to cause a similar problem. Some players have reported having the abovementioned cause lead to being kicked out of several guilds at the same time."

This has definately happened to me costing me a lot of grief in the mages and fighters guilds (and lost time searching for bear skins, minotaur horns, dragons breath and rosewort, arggh). Now when I get the pop up message about stealing, I immediately load the last saved game.

Serge · Post by **Serge** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 10:24 am

Also...

I found that "speed travel" to another city may temporarily fix the glitch. However, I would stay away from the city in question until Bethesda comes out with the patch to fix it!

lol :laugh: Just a thought, anyway.

khanaway · Post by **khanaway** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 3:02 am

To avoid this bug exit skingrad from the opposite gate (there are no guards posted at it) and sneak to your horse when you get near the stables and flee from Skingrad. If you talk to a guard in another city you will still be arrested but just pay your 1 gold fine (you should store any stolen items before choosing to talk to such a guard however) and you won't be repeatedly arrested. Annoying but at least it's then over.

On a side note I stored some items in a chest in a warehouse but over time (two days I think) they seem to have disappeared (very annoying). Anyone know if you can get them back anyway or are they totally gone from the game (one was a cool but very heavy hammer I got from the Daedric shrine quests).

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 6:29 am

[QUOTE=khanaway]To avoid this bug exit skingrad from the opposite gate (there are no guards posted at it) and sneak to your horse when you get near the stables and flee from Skingrad. If you talk to a guard in another city you will still be arrested but just pay your 1 gold fine (you should store any stolen items before choosing to talk to such a guard however) and you won't be repeatedly arrested. Annoying but at least it's then over.

On a side note I stored some items in a chest in a warehouse but over time (two days I think) they seem to have disappeared (very annoying). Anyone know if you can get them back anyway or are they totally gone from the game (one was a cool but very heavy hammer I got from the Daedric shrine quests).[/QUOTE]
This happens. I lost all my Sigil Stones and a whole whack of Nirnroot this way, among other things. I wound up writing two mods to give me back all my Sigil stones and Nirnroots. I suppose you could cheat-code the stuff back into your inventory as well. Use the TES Construction set to find the IDs for the items you need to re-acquire.