The legalities on getting things out of the garbage?

My wife works for a cleaning agency And she is responsible for taking the garbage out for a large office complex. She removed a bag from a garbage can & noticed it was very heavy opened it and there was about twenty cellular phones in it. This big company had purchased new ones for their employees & are throwing these away. Are we legally alowed to have these and if we are, Can we activate them and use them, or sell them? Thank you for your time and your speedy response!

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kevin 385 Dry:
My wife works for a cleaning agency And she is responsible for taking the garbage out for a large office complex. She removed a bag from a garbage can & noticed it was very heavy opened it and there was about twenty cellular phones in it. This big company had purchased new ones for their employees & are throwing these away. Are we legally alowed to have these and if we are, Can we activate them and use them, or sell them? Thank you for your time and your speedy response!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


My response:

There is U.S. Supreme Court case law on the subject of garbage. Basically, the law is that once discarded, items in the trash have been abandoned; i.e., the previous owner has relinquished ownership, and anyone finding such garbage may claim "ownership."

Insofar as your technical questions, you'll have to take the phones to a repair center to see if they are even worth salvaging and be made operational once again.

IAAL


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