What if the “bag of money” didn’t have any money in it at all, and the cost of recovering and properly disposing of the “bag of money” cost the legal owners more than what the bag and it’s contents are worth?
Comment on Raspberry pi 4 inside abandoned scooters
JustZ@lemmy.world 1 year ago
It’s not abandoned property unless the finder doesn’t know who it belongs to.
If the name of the company is on the scooter, it is mislaid property, not abandoned property.
The classic bar exam question on this involves the finder of a bag of money. In one hypothetical, it’s a plain canvas bag. In another, it has the name of a bank on the bag.
When the name is there, you have to give it back. The finder only gets to keep it if after legal notice and a waiting period, the owner fails to reclaim it. In most states there is a statute on this, and most of them require turning the property over to police temporarily.
Ajen@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
JustZ@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Oh, sure, it comes down to knowledge of the facts. If the owner manifests an intention not to recover it, then it is abandoned. But if you just find the scooter, or even if the company has said it’s going out of business, that’s not the same as having knowledge that the owner has no intent to retrieve the property.
Ajen@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Counterpoint: all of that is irrelevant if the legal owners don’t care enough to sue you.
JustZ@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I mean everything is legal unless someone enforces the contrary.
thbb@lemmy.world 1 year ago
When the fine for littering and the cost of repair or recycling is higher than what you can recoup from this sort of lost property, it’s a win win for the police.