Larceny of lost property: Oklahoma law explained.
Understanding Larceny of Lost Property
Finders keepers, not in Oklahoma, that’s larceny of lost property. I’m Oklahoma attorney, James Wirth, that’s the question that we have here, actually came up because we stumbled across a case that was filed. It’s a larceny case based on lost property. It’s not one that we see filed very often.
At my office, we handle a lot of larceny cases, whether it’s petty larceny, merchandise from a retailer, or grand larceny. There are all kinds of different ones, but one that we don’t see very often, but we have seen recently, is larceny of lost property.
When Is Finders Keepers a Thing in Oklahoma?
So basically, under these circumstances, if you find some property that appears to be abandoned, and you take that, appropriate it to your own use, that can be a crime. If it’s under 1,000, it’d be a misdemeanor. If it’s over 1,000, it’s a felony that has different ranges of punishment, depending on how much money it is. With it being over 15,000, it could be a potential of up to eight years in prison for taking that property.
Well, this is what the law says. If you find a property under circumstances that gives knowledge or means of inquiry as to the true owner, then you have to first make such efforts to find the owner to restore the property to him as are reasonable and just under the circumstances.
Make Reasonable Efforts to Find the Owner
So, if you find property appears to be abandoned, and don’t know whose it is, whatever information under that scenario that you have, you have to utilize that to make reasonable efforts to try to find out who the owner is and to restore it to that person. If you don’t do that and you just take that property on use, whether you find money on the ground or other apparently abandoned property, if you don’t try to find who the prior owner is based on the information that you have, then you could be charged with a misdemeanor or felony to crime depending on the amount of value that is involved with the property. So, don’t do that. Make reasonable efforts to find out who the owner is.
And then if you fail, then at that point it is not a crime if you continue to keep that property if you can’t find out who the owner is, if you can’t restore it to that owner. But you have to make reasonable efforts, otherwise, it’s a crime.
Schedule a Strategy Session with an Attorney
Do not risk facing criminal charges for larceny of lost property in Oklahoma. If you have questions related to a matter in Oklahoma law, talk to an attorney about that privately and confidentially. To get that scheduled with a Tulsa criminal defense lawyer at my office, you go online to makelaweasy.com.
