Finders Keepers?

[Tom_in_CA]

11 minutes ago, Erik Oostra said:

Phew! I've seen the flip side of this at my local metal detecting club, where owners post on the club's facebook page hoping to recover their jewellery.. and sometimes offering huge rewards.. one woman offered a AU$ 1000 reward to find her lost wedding ring, plenty of punters took up the challenge but none ever found it ?.. In this case the ring had a lot of sentimental value as her husband had passed away.. 

 

Yeah, I've seen that , where someone who's lost a ring, wises up to the fact that there's geographic specific FB md'ing pages.  And posting their plea for help.   And most of us md'rs like to put our hobby to use, and don't mind helping.  Posse hunting is fun, so ... no harm there.   But I've never heard of the reverse scenario, where they lurk to see if someone posts show & tell, and them swoop in and say "that's mine".

It's theoretically possible.  But I just have never seen it happen.

 

If anyone knows of a case of this "that's mine" scenario, let us know.  

[rod-pa]

I agree, an exception, but I would give him his coins.  My comment was more the foot down, hasn't been touched since 1800s

[Ridge Runner]

Over the many years I’ve been detecting I’ve returned lots of rings .

 The thing to expect is you may not even get a Thank You when you hand it back to the person who lost it.

 You just remember that you done the right thing. That’s what you have to remember when you turn and walk away because the others are long gone.

 Chuck 

[Valens Legacy]

18 hours ago, Tom_in_CA said:

Technically, if the ring or piece of jewelry meets the cutoff valuation criteria for your state of Illinois L&F laws , then your friend is in violation. 

Here is exactly what the law states:

(765 ILCS 1020/28) (from Ch. 50, par. 28)
    Sec. 28. In all cases where such lost goods, money, bank notes or other choses in action shall not exceed the sum of $100 in value and the owner thereof is unknown, the finder shall advertise the same at the court house, and if the owner does not claim such money, goods, bank notes or other choses in action within 6 months from the time of such advertisement, the ownership of such property shall vest in the finder and the court shall enter an order to that effect.
    If the value thereof exceeds the sum of $100, the county clerk, within 20 days after receiving the certified copy of the court's order shall cause a notice thereof to be published for 3 weeks successively in some public newspaper printed in this county and if the owner of such goods, money, bank notes, or other choses in action does not claim the same and pay the finder's charges and expenses within one year after the advertisement thereof as aforesaid, the ownership of such property shall vest in the finder and the court shall enter an order to that effect.
(Source: P.A. 83-1362.)

[Erik Oostra]

35 minutes ago, Valens Legacy said:

within 6 months from the time of such advertisement

6 months.. Wow!

 

36 minutes ago, Valens Legacy said:

within one year after the advertisement

1 year.. Even bigger Wow! 

Thank you very much for that research Valens Legacy, is that the same for other U.S states as well? I'm pretty sure it's 3 months in Oz but you've got me thinking now.. I'll have to find out.. 

[Valens Legacy]

1 minute ago, Erik Oostra said:

is that the same for other U.S states as well?

I am unsure of that as each state has their own rules. Here in this county the court has told us they can have the items after 30 days in most cases. But you must place it in the paper for at least 3 weeks for it to be legal.

Just remember if someone does claim it, they must pay your finders fee.

[Erik Oostra]

3 minutes ago, Valens Legacy said:

each state has their own rules

This is from the Queensland Government website regarding found property..

Found property

If you find property that someone has obviously lost, take it to your local police station.

If you find goods or money, you can’t keep them. In fact, police can charge you for keeping goods or money you’ve found that you don’t hand in.

If you tell the police that you’ve found something of value, they may later return the goods to you if they can’t find the owner. 

 

I can't find any mention on the Queensland Police website about how long they hang on to found property before the finder gets to keep it.. It does say that: "if these items are not claimed by the owner within 30 days of written notice (i.e. publishing on this site), then the Commissioner may destroy or dispose of the items."

 

 

[geof_junk]

Here in Victoria while chasing coins back in 1980 one of my boys found an expensive Automatic shot gun. No one claimed it, but neither my son (10 years old) or myself were able to obtain it. We did not want it anyway but wondered who or what happened to it, but did not believed it was destroyed. 

[Erik Oostra]

9 hours ago, geof_junk said:

No one claimed it,

Maybe it was Ned Kelly's shotgun? ?