Hacker Read top | best | new | newcomments | leaders | about | bookmarklet login

True, but collecting it isn't (unless it was all in one place, which I doubt). And taking it out of the firm isn't (unless they have zero security).


sort by: page size:

it does not matter if they sell it or not I don't want it collected. It could later be subpoenaed or stolen. They should just not collect it in the first place

Not only they can take they are under no obligation to even pursue charges. You have to prove your innocence to get your stuff back.

Note: Police get to divide this loot among themselves (as their own private property) it does not even go to government coffers.


Not if it's someone else's property, and you take it for your own purposes rather than hand it in to the bar/law.

Good point but if there is a suspicion that an unclaimed item may pose a security risk, the solution cannot be to push random strangers to take the item.

Raw possession does not always equal the legal right to dispose of something. To an extent this could be treated as a very limited scope data breach depending upon who your attorney is in the matter. Litigation outcomes should be interesting since the firm the strategist worked for is suing to regain legal custody of the materials.

Plus most importantly it's non-portable. You're dependent on their good will (hah!) for the ability to retrieve it from them in the future at whatever (partial) rate they decide they can get away with.

I thought they were criminals for going to lump sum match. This is net level stuff...


I'm pretty sure if you find a bag of money on public property, you're under no obligation to actually return it.

This is infeasible though as evidenced by how actual theft doesn't get handled by the legal system (police, prosecutors, and judges). Realistically the only way to get your stuff back is to take it back yourself or somehow force the police into action by doing the work for them.

Why wouldn't it? It's a case of holding stolen goods. You don't get to keep them.

I don't think it is legal to use deadly force to retrieve stolen goods, yours or anyone else's. You'd have to staff your firm with off duty cops or something to skirt that law.

Right, but you also can't steal someone's stuff just because they left it unattended.

More reasonable would be not taking anyone's property or cash until they are found guilty of a crime and the asset is shown to be profit of the crime.

Anything else is theft by taking


Sure, but it's unlikely a thief would.

Don't forget escheat as well!

This is a lawful process in the US where a state government claims your stuff if you haven't touched or looked at it in a long time.

California gets a large percentage of it's revenue from escheat - just literally taking people's stuff (usually stock), without notice.

There are historical reasons that kinda/sorta makes sense, but this has transformed into a monster over time.

Edit: https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/58 (2015)


IANAL but I'd have to agree. It reminds me of the time I got money deposited in to my bank account that I knew wasn't mine. I asked my girlfriend's dad - a lawyer - if I could keep it. Of course not, he said. It's like someone parking their car in your driveway, he said, and leaving the keys in the ignition. Are they trespassing on your driveway? Sure. Does that mean this car belongs to you now and you can do with it whatever you please? Of course not.

I don't think I'm missing anything. You want to be able to claim the briefcase as proceeds of a crime, without actually prosecuting a crime. That is unreasonable. If, as you say, "Bob's actions are not in themselves criminal", you've got no justification to take his stuff. You may think it's proceeds of a crime, and you can treat it as evidence of a possible crime. But if you haven't got enough evidence to convict Bob, then you also don't have enough evidence to keep his stuff. Pretending otherwise is a mockery of justice.

It could be confiscated

obviously if they call it seizing and are willing to make the case in court that they had it seized, then the 'stealing' of it is a separate crime that probably has even worse penalties given that the argument would be it was stolen from government secured storage. Which I guess would make for an interesting case.

If they don't charge for another theft then it would be obvious that they don't believe enough in that they had it 'seized' and that what happened was a 'theft'.

on edit: I guess I need to go find it on archive.org to figure out if that has happened or not though.


Interesting! Wouldn't that make him in possession of stolen material?
next

Legal | privacy