Penny Arcade Forums› Help / Advice Forum
The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.

Legality of selling something you found on the street

CrystalMethodistCrystalMethodist Registered User regular
edited April 2010 in Help / Advice Forum
DID NOT HAPPEN TO SOMEONE I KNOW, but I was having a debate with someone about this.

Let's say I'm in a bar (in Redwood City, for example...) and I find a cell phone on the floor. I try to turn it on but it won't boot up. Someone comes and tells me, "that phone isn't mine, BUT I really like it, and I'll give you $10,000 for it." I do it.

Legal? Illegal? For whom? I'm trying to find a law or court decision that makes this clear cut, but my Google'ing skills are lacking right now.

Just to be clear, I'm not interested in the morals of this situation, just the legality under US/California law.

CrystalMethodist on

Posts

  • DiogeeDiogee Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I'm pretty sure Apple is going to find any way possible to sue the crap out of anyone that even touched that iPhone 4 that got left at the bar.

    Diogee on
  • RookRook Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    It's theft, plain and simple.

    Rook on
  • EshEsh Tending bar. FFXIV. Motorcycles. Portland, ORRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Diogee wrote: »
    I'm pretty sure Apple is going to find any way possible to sue the crap out of anyone that even touched that iPhone 4 that got left at the bar.

    Yeah, disassembling it was pretty ballsy, but hey, I'm happy that I have a pretty good idea what the iPhone 4 is going to look like now. I love the new aesthetic.

    Esh on
  • PeregrineFalconPeregrineFalcon Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Clearly we're discussing the iPhone HD leak here, so let's not mince words.

    CA Penal Code 485 would be the relevant section, emphasis mine.
    CA Penal Code Section 485 wrote:
    One who finds lost property under circumstances which give him knowledge of or means of inquiry as to the true owner, and who appropriates such property to his own use, or to the use of another person not entitled thereto, without first making reasonable and just efforts to find the owner and to restore the property to him, is guilty of theft.

    I'm pretty sure that there's a precident set for this that you can find out who owns a cellphone.

    Bonus edit: This can be either a misdemeanour or a felony, depending on the "value of the loss."

    PeregrineFalcon on
    Looking for a DX:HR OnLive code for my kid brother.
    Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
  • Protein ShakesProtein Shakes __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2010
    If you're in a bar and you find an item that was clearly dropped or misplaced, then you turn it into the establishment so they can place it in their lost and found.

    What you do NOT do is sell it to someone, because the item does not belong to you.

    edit: with regards to what Peregrine said above, you have the means of finding the owner. You do it by returning it to lost and found, since the owner is very likely to come back for something like a phone.

    Protein Shakes on
  • KalkinoKalkino Buttons Londres Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Perhaps do a search on the "finder's rule" for California

    Kalkino on
    Freedom for the Northern Isles!
  • ThanatosThanatos Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    No, that would not be legal.

    Thanatos on
This discussion has been closed.
Penny Arcade Forums› Help / Advice Forum