Someone loses, someone finds. A judge on why you can't keep things forgotten or lost

Whether it is possible to leave things forgotten or lost by someone in public places, and what responsibility is provided for this, the judge of the judicial board for criminal cases of the Minsk City Court Valentina Zenkevich told the correspondent of the Minsk-Novosti news agency.

People lose, forget, and sometimes deliberately leave their belongings in public places, and someone finds them and takes them away.

- At first glance, this situation may seem harmless: a person just found someone else’s thing. But from the point of view of the law, everything is different, the interlocutor said. For the most part, talking about theft, people imagine a situation when they quietly pulled a wallet out of a bag, secretly entered someone else’s apartment and stole property, took goods out of a store and the like. When, for example, a person turns into his property a mobile phone left on a table in a cafe, someone else’s umbrella or wallet, forgotten in a taxi, many consider this a find, but not a theft. But that's not true.

According to the judge, it is necessary to distinguish between the left and the lost thing.

- “Left should be considered such a thing that the owner (owner of the property), deliberately temporarily left in a place known to him, for example, a bicycle near the store,” explained V. Zenkevich. A lost thing is a property that is lost by the owner against his will, and he does not know where it is. However, the loss (loss) of a thing is not the termination of ownership of it.

Forgotten property is located in a place known to the owner (owner), and he can return for it or otherwise return it. To believe that something found can be left to itself is a common misconception.

A find is any thing accidentally lost (lost) by one person and found and taken by another. Thus, both the loss of a thing and its finding must be accidental. The finder knows that it belongs to someone else (not just thrown away), but does not know who exactly, and reasonably assumes that no one will return for it. But remember that something found may be someone’s property.

Appropriation of found property can result in administrative and even criminal liability. Appropriation by a person of found someone else's property is a concealment of the fact of its finding with its further use for their own purposes and forms either a criminal act provided for by Art. 215 of the Criminal Code, if the value of the property is a particularly large amount (1,000 or more times higher than the base value established on the day of the crime), or an administrative offense provided for in Article 11.4 of the Administrative Code, if the person appropriated the found property in an amount that is not particularly large.

- Appropriation of found property should be distinguished from theft (theft), – said the judge. In a broad sense, theft is when a citizen who has found and taken someone else’s thing knows whose it is. For example, he saw a passerby’s mobile phone fall out, but decided not to tell him about it, but to pick it up and keep it. Or the person realizes that the owner of the thing can return for it. This most often refers to property forgotten on a table in a cafe, on a bench at the entrance, in the dressing room, near the ticket office, in the train car, at the reception desk in the clinic, in the salon of public transport. The finder of a lost or forgotten thing must immediately notify the person who lost it, or the owner of the thing, or any other person known to him who has the right to receive it, and return it according to ownership. If the thing is found in a room or transport, it is subject to surrender to the person representing the owner of this room or vehicle (Article 228 of the Civil Code).

Thus, one of the district courts of the capital ruled a guilty verdict under Part 1 of Art. 205 of the Criminal Code (“Theft”) against a resident of Minsk. From the materials of the criminal case, it is seen that the victim left a mobile phone on the table of the summer terrace of the cafe. After a while, the convict approached him, took the victim’s smartphone and left.

In this case, it was obvious to the convict that the phone was not abandoned, but forgotten, and its owner could return for it, which happened later. At the same time, the citizen had a real opportunity to inform the cafe administrator or the police about the gadget, but she did not do this, and turned the property into her property.

Thus, if the forgotten thing is in a place known to the owner or owner, and he has the opportunity to return for it or otherwise receive it, the person who appropriated this thing commits theft.

- Also, to qualify the appropriation of someone else’s property as theft (theft), there should be an awareness of the assignor’s belonging to a particular person and the possibility of returning it to its owner, the judge continued. For example, if a citizen saw the owner drop some items, or if the wallet had business cards of the owner with an address and phone number, or if items with documents of the owner of the property were found. Assignment of such things indicates signs of illegal seizure of other people's property, which are characteristic of theft (theft).

The photo is illustrative in nature

Thus, according to the verdict of one of the district courts under Part 1 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code, a Minsk citizen was convicted for stealing a wallet found in a car-sharing service car with funds in it, a medical care card and a driver's license in the name of the victim. The court, recognizing the citizen guilty of theft, came to the conclusion that the wallet found by him is not a find, since it belongs to a specific person who previously traveled in a car rented by him. The convict could establish the personal data of the victim in connection with the presence of documents in the wallet. External conditions, environment and position of the wallet indicated that it was not lost, but forgotten, and the owner of the property could return for it. At the same time, the convict had a real opportunity to report the discovery of property to the operator of the car sharing company or to the police, but he did not do this.

Another citizen was convicted of the theft - he found a borenet on a bench near the house, which contained money and documents in the name of the victim. The man left cash for himself, and all the rest was handed over to the worker for complex cleaning and maintenance of households. Thus, the convict had the opportunity to establish the personal data of the victim and return his property.

- If the owner (owner of the property) intentionally temporarily left a thing in a place known to him, for example, a bicycle near a store, then possession of it also forms theft (theft), since things left unattended are considered in the possession of the persons to whom they belong, Zenkevich said. Property left by guests in a hotel or by the customer in a workshop providing household services, when the owner is known, cannot be a find. In order to be recognized as such, the owner must be unknown. In such situations, the return to the owner of his property is the responsibility of the relevant organizations. Therefore, the appropriation of such things is a special case of theft of another’s property (theft).

As you can see, the forgotten or lost thing still belongs to someone. Which means you can't just take it. To do so is to break the law.

Photo courtesy of the Minsk City Court