‘Finders keepers’ could lead to legal trouble

The old saying, “finders’ keepers, losers’ weepers,” may sound harmless, but what appears to be a lucky discovery could become a costly mistake.

Under the law, keeping someone else’s lost property could result in criminal charges, including fines or up to five years behind bars.

Veteran defence attorney Christopher Townsend, speaking with THE STAR, explained that the Larceny Act places an obligation on the person who discovers lost property to make efforts to locate the owner and return the item.

“The law is pretty clear, it places a duty on you to try and find the owner or try and take reasonable steps to determine who the owner is,” the attorney-at-law said.

Townsend said the circumstances surrounding the discovery, along with the actions taken afterwards, are important in determining whether a person has committed an offence.

He explained that while finding an item does not automatically amount to larceny, prosecutors must prove that the person had both possession of the property and the intention to permanently deprive the owner of it.

“When you find it, the crown must prove that you had the intention of depriving the owner of it,” Townsend said. “So, if you find it and try to find the owner, and you can’t find the owner, and say ‘Cho, mi a keep this for myself, I can’t bother’, then that may not be larceny.”

Townsend noted that a person’s intention at the time the item is found is a key factor.

“When you find it, you must have the intention at that time to permanently deprive it, therefore, if at the time of finding you believe the owner may not be discovered by taking reasonable steps, that may not be larceny depending on the circumstances. If it is that you take reasonable steps to find the owner and you cannot find the owner ... that may not be larceny. But a lot turns upon the particular circumstances of the finding and circumstances of what you do after.”

He added that even after efforts are made to locate the owner, the outcome may depend on the specific details of each case. Townsend said persons who discover money, bank cards or other belongings and hand them over to the police or relevant authorities are taking the correct approach.

He explained that what qualifies as reasonable steps will vary depending on the situation. Using the example of finding a $50 bill blowing in the street, he said a person who sees someone nearby who may have lost it should make an effort to ask if the money belongs to them.

“If the person said they don’t lose anything then that may mean, having taken those steps, you would have satisfied the requirement, so you would not have the mental element required to form the intent, which is the requirement of the law,” he said.

For those who believe that finding lost property make its automatically theirs, Townsend warned that the law does not support that view.

“If the person lost it then it doesn’t mean it is no longer theirs, it means they are not in possession at the time. So when you take it, you have permanently deprived the owner. You are not the owner, and you know you are not the owner,” he said.