What ever happened to "finders keepers, losers weepers"?

Question

Yesterday this cabbie found 30 diamond rings in his cab and returned it. And I've seen a police show where they dropped a wallet and arrested anyone who kept it. And some guy found a ring on the McDonalds counter and they tracked him down and arrested him using the video cameras. Where's the criminal act, where's the deception, where's the justice, where's the harm if it's your own fault for losing it?

I've never lost anything. But I have been the victim of theft. I think I know the difference.

Answer 1

If you find property that has been abandoned, you may have a legal right to keep it. However, just because someone leaves something somewhere, like a hat on a rack, an umbrella near the door, a ring on a counter, anything left in a cab, that does not make it abandoned. The left behind property still belongs to the person that left it there. If someone else takes the property, it is called stealing in criminal terms and conversion in civil terms.

If property is left behind, eventually, after a period of time, if the owner does not return to claim it, is will be considered abandoned and whoever finds it can claim it as their own. That is why, if you find a bag full of money lying on the sidewalk, you should turn it into the local police station. That way, you are not stealing it and the rightful owners can claim it. If the rightful owners don't claim it within a specific time (usually this is a local law), you can claim it for yourself.

Answer 2

"finders keepers, losers weepers" is playground law. In fact, if you got a teacher involved you would find out it was not even law on the playground.

If you find something like a bag full of jewelry on the street and pick it up and take it home you would be guilty of theft. Just because it was unguarded does not make it yours. Just because someone lost it does not make it yours. When you pick it up, you know that it belongs to someone else. You know it is not yours. If it is traced back to you, you can be charged with theft and be forced to return the bag.

If you come across something like this, you are supposed to take it to the police and let them handle it. In some places, if it goes a certain amount of time without being claimed, it will become yours. However, you still have to follow the procedure.

Answer 3

Thou shalt not steal.

Three cheers for the honest cabbie.

The others you mention all had the means to at least attempt to return the items to their rightful owner but didn't. In most states, if you turn found valuables in to the police, they belong to the finder if the rightful owner doesn't show up to claim them in a specified period of time. That's your "finders keepers." This seldom works for cash anymore, since police have started calling all large sums of cash found "drug money" so they can claim it for themselves.

Answer 4

"Finders Keepers" has never been the law in the US (with the exception of a specific postal law).

There are provisions for claiming abandoned property, squatting, etc. But they have very specific rules to prevent abuse.

Which is what you're advocating. Abuse.

People lose stuff. You do.

People want their stuff back. If the law said that when you lose something, you lose all rights to it... you wouldn't be happy.

It'd also make it too easy for people to steal and claim that the item was "lost."

Answer 5

I really think all these are judgment call and yes you are right about the losing it but come on don't you want your stuff back if you misplaced it? LOL really LOL some people are just nicer than any of the ones who have found my stuff (stolen actually most of it, not misplaced- had it in my car and my car got broke in to. Now I always take everything electronic out of my car!

Answer 6

No such thing as finders, keepers.
It is a written law that if you find something that is NOT yours, you are obligated to find the owner.
You can say right now, "it's your own fault for losing it", but I bet you would be singing a different tune, if it was YOU that had lost something.

Answer 7

With your concept of the difference between "right" and "wrong" let me ask you to place your wallet on the counter for me to take after you leave.

The law says:

Theft of lost property - Definition.

A person commits the crime of theft of lost property if he actively obtains or exerts control over the property of another which he knows to have been lost or mislaid, or to have been delivered under a mistake as to the identity of the recipient or as to the nature or the amount of the property, and with intent to deprive the owner permanently of it, he fails to take reasonable measures to discover and notify the owner.

(Acts 1977, No. 607, p. 812, §3205.)

Answer 8

In the UK, what you do is hand it in at the police station. If its not claimed in 28 days, its legally yours and no-one can take it from you after that. If you hand it in, then no-one can do you for stealing, and quite often, there's a good chance you'll get it back anyway - legally. For that 28 days though it doesn't belong to you, so taking it is theft.

Answer 9

It went the way of believing now that losers are victims of a horrible injustice by society. Take little kids ball games now, there is no winning or losing team, it's bad for the psyche.

Answer 10

It was replaced by society by "Trying to be Honest."

Remember the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

After all, if you lost something, wouldn't you be happy if someone found it and returned it do you? Sure you would.