Appropriation of Lost Property

To avoid a conviction under Penal Code § 485 for appropriation of lost property, a person has a duty to first make reasonable efforts to find the true owner and to restore the property to the owner. If you fail to take these efforts before deciding to keep the property for yourself or to give the property to someone else, then you may be convicted under Penal Code § 485 for appropriation of lost property.  

However, if the circumstances do not give the “finder” any knowledge of the means or identity of the true owner, then the finder does not have a duty to try to find the true owner.

For example, you would not be convicted of appropriating lost property if you found a baseball hat floating on the surface of the water while taking a boat ride on a quiet lake. This would not be a crime because the finder would have no reasonable way of finding or identifying the true owner of the hat.

But you may be convicted of appropriating lost property if you found an expensive purse on the floor of a restaurant. This is because the circumstances would indicate to the “finder” that the true owner of the purse may be at the restaurant. Additionally, reasonable efforts to find the true owner would have been available – like asking a waiter if a customer forgot a purse.