finders keepers or maybe not

[wayne]

I read recently about a civil war find in west wales,at a certain house,500 coins.
now it looks possible to find out who owned the house at the time.

If direct family members are still living now,with proof,could they claim it?

What about finds of say 200 yrs. ago.
I read about a hawking ring ,silver with the name John Aubrey llantrythyd and also seals can be traced to the original owners,through wax stamps on documents in the record office.

what about more up to date finds.
I thought these had to be handed in to the police,and if not claimed in one month they are given back to the finder.
Is this true?

[mickycoin "mick"]

hi wayne, yes the last bit is correct, when you hand the item in you are given a receipt, if not claimed by the owner you get to keep the item, fact i have done it, also if you find an item of value and you donot hand it in you ""can"" be prosecuted called ""stealing by finding""  call into your local police station and ask the law regarding lost items..the police arnt to keen to except lost items as its time consuming,storage, then getting rid of unclaimed items, alot end up in the skip, the better stuff goes to police auctions, we used to get one regular here in llanelli, maily tools jewelery etc..enjoyed that you should get some interesting replies to this subject wayne mickycoin

[Zeus (Joel)]

The last bit is not entirely ture.  remember seeing in the paper not long agoere a young girl found £1000 or a little more in cash and handed it in to the poliand they endedp keeping it and putting it into their department or something like that

[mickycoin "mick"]

dont beleive everything you read in the paper,"its there to help sell them"" so no one reported that ammount of money lost, hard to beleive, and i bet that persons family persued it through the courts,  and won, anymoney that is generated by auctions etc goes to the police benevelant fund i think  mickycoin

[Chef Geoff]

No I don't t think you've got that right Joel , I think you'll find that without a court ruling that would just be stealing.

[Zeus (Joel)]

Sorry i was partly mistaken... This hapened in Dallas Texas and not in the UK.  Here's the article


Dallas will keep $2,000 found by a teenager in a parking lot last February.
 

The 15-year-old Shepton High School student spotted the money on the ground and took it to a nearby Chase Bank.
 
Over the last three months, the bank and Dallas police have tried to find the owner, but have had no luck.
 On Tuesday, police said under a new city policy, the unclaimed money will go into Dallas’ general fund — not back to the person who found it, as in years past.
 
“We appreciate your honesty,” said Dallas police spokesman Senior Cpl. Kevin Janse. “We’re going to put the money to good use. It’s not going to be wasted, but put to good use for the City of Dallas.” That’s not the answer Ashley Donaldson had been hoping for. “I was thinking about a car,” she confessed.
 It’s also not the lesson her parents wanted her to learn.
 
“I’m happy that she did what she did, but the way it ended? I wish she didn’t find it in the first place, because it certainly didn’t teach her the right thing,” her father Ben Donaldson said. At the time Ashley found the envelope full of money, she was living in a one-bedroom apartment with her parents and her four brothers and sisters.

[Zeus (Joel)]

This kind of story kinda makes you think twice before turning someiing in

[Chef Geoff]

Well it will if I ever find myself in Dallas