Discard Phone

[aagiants]

Pennslyvania-

Hey everyone, hoping you would be able to help me.

I found a discarded smart phone on my door step (I live next to a lot of bars, people often hang out at my door step). The phone is locked so i can't contact anyone, but i can receive calls and see text messages. it has been 4 days and NO ONE has called. A few people texted and from their names i have messaged them on Facebook to try to help me track the owner down. I still have not heard anything and i want to give a true attempt to return it... But how long do i have until its legally mine?

Thanks!

 

[aagiants]

I should add that i rent from my apartment and that the phone was right in front of my door step on the sidewalk. Not sure if its public property.

Plus phone is valued around $400

 

[Zigner]

I should add that i rent from my apartment and that the phone was right in front of my door step on the sidewalk. Not sure if its public property.

Plus phone is valued around $400

This is all hypothetical, right? I mean, you of course headed down to the local police station just as soon as you could to turn in this found property, right?

 

[Mass_Shyster]

I was not able to locate any lost property statutes for PA, and the cases on the subject seem to refer to common law.

At common law, A finder of lost property has a valid claim against all but the true owner.

So at any time in the future, the true owner can show up and claim the property.

Note: I also found no requirement that the property be turned over to the police, or anyone else for that matter.

 

[CdwJava]

He is required by law to make "reasonable" efforts to find the owner. very often this involves also notifying the police. If PA law is similar to CA, if the original owner cannot be located, then a claim can be made by the finder.

§ 3924. Theft of property lost, mislaid, or delivered by
mistake.
A person who comes into control of property of another that
he knows to have been lost, mislaid, or delivered under a
mistake as to the nature or amount of the property or the
identity of the recipient is guilty of theft if, with intent to
deprive the owner thereof, he fails to take reasonable measures
to restore the property to a person entitled to have it.​

 

[aagiants]

Thanks for the advice.

I guess i dont trust the cops in philadelphia to do anything and i would never go to the cops if i left the phone in a bar district of philadelphia...

Hopefully someone will contact me about it

 

[Zigner]

Thanks for the advice.

I guess i dont trust the cops in philadelphia to do anything and i would never go to the cops if i left the phone in a bar district of philadelphia...

Maybe YOU wouldn't...but maybe somebody else expects that a law-abiding citizen WOULD turn the item in to the police.

Hopefully someone will contact me about it

Turn it in to the police. Either that, or stop the ****-and-bull story about trying to find the owner and just pocket the phone. Don't play games with us.

 

[Mass_Shyster]

Maybe YOU wouldn't...but maybe somebody else expects that a law-abiding citizen WOULD turn the item in to the police.



Turn it in to the police. Either that, or stop the ****-and-bull story about trying to find the owner and just pocket the phone. Don't play games with us.

Would you mind letting me know what law you are asking the OP to abide by? I have found no PA statute requiring any action on the part of the finder.

 

[CdwJava]

Would you mind letting me know what law you are asking the OP to abide by? I have found no PA statute requiring any action on the part of the finder.

I found it ... 3924 posted above.

If the owner has reported it as stolen to the police or his service provider, it is very possible that when the OP goes to activate it for his own use that the cops will come and hook him up for theft. At the very least, they would be grilling him on it and he had best hope that case law in PA considers sitting around and waiting to be a "reasonable" means of attempting to locate the owner. That would generally not cut it out here.

 

[Some Random Guy]

It should be a trivial matter to find the owner if it is a phone locked to a particular carrier (iPhone or one of those with a Sprint, Verizon, T-mobile, etc logo on it).

Just call up the carrier using the yellow pages, tell them you have a lost phone and give them the serial number or IMEI number (often found inside under the battery) and give them your phone number. Have them tell their subscriber to call you for their phone.

 

[Mass_Shyster]

I found it ... 3924 posted above.

Oh, I thought you were quoting CA law as an example. My search did not find that statute, and the cases I found didn't reference it.

Back to the drawing board....

 

[CdwJava]

Oh, I thought you were quoting CA law as an example. My search did not find that statute, and the cases I found didn't reference it.

Back to the drawing board....

I simply started with a Google search for misappropriation of found property in PA and narrowed it from there to find that section and then confirm it.