RE: Another story from the "Dumbass" files, me.
October 22, 2020 at 8:13 am
(This post was last modified: October 22, 2020 at 8:21 am by BrianSoddingBoru4.)
And it’s not just money. If you find a piece of property - a hat, for example - you are required to make a reasonable effort to find the owner.
Suppose you’re at a public place and you leave your mobile phone on a park bench while you go to use the lavvy (stupid thing to do, but that’s not the point). I come along and say, ‘Cool, an abandoned phone!’ and walk off with it. That’s theft, because there’s no reasonable way to assume that you simply didn’t want your phone anymore.
The converse of that is when property is CLEARLY abandoned, then it’s a case of help yourself. Back it NI, I once left a pile of scrap at the kerb on collection day. It was junk (split pieces, water damage, etc). I happened to look out the window later and saw a women loading the wood into the boot of her car. That’s not theft.
Boru
Suppose you’re at a public place and you leave your mobile phone on a park bench while you go to use the lavvy (stupid thing to do, but that’s not the point). I come along and say, ‘Cool, an abandoned phone!’ and walk off with it. That’s theft, because there’s no reasonable way to assume that you simply didn’t want your phone anymore.
The converse of that is when property is CLEARLY abandoned, then it’s a case of help yourself. Back it NI, I once left a pile of scrap at the kerb on collection day. It was junk (split pieces, water damage, etc). I happened to look out the window later and saw a women loading the wood into the boot of her car. That’s not theft.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
