Criminalizing "Finders Keepers"...

From the “Would this even stand up in court file”:

Under the new Tac Plan, officers leave a backpack with items worth more than $2,500 at Gold and Fourth. If passersby take the backpack without reporting it to police, they are arrested and charged with felony counts of larceny.

The story linked is about how this plan, hatched by the Albuquerque Police Department, is on hold but I’m left wondering how it was ever approved. Surely APD has their plans reviewed by the district attorney and apparently this plan was, as the story states. As a matter of fact, the reason why this plan is being put on hold is not because it is clearly entrapment but because it was approved by someone who no longer works in the district attorney’s office.

It seems that APD is really reaching with this tactic because as far as I can tell, “finders keepers” is not nor has have ever been a crime. In the story the details of a bust are shared in which a man was arrested after officers followed him for more than an hour after he found the bag. So, on top of entrapment, APD is wasting officer’s time by having them follow people for holding on to something that they have found.

Is it genial to find a backpack with $2500 worth of items in it and not report it to anyone? Of course not but it isn’t a crime either. And what do the people that find the backpack and then return it to the officers standing nearby get, a cookie?

I get it, it’s rough if you leave anything of value somewhere and then after going back it’s gone and there’s no lost and found and no one has called to let you know they have it. But, you only have yourself to blame. I have lost things in multiple places and often I’m lucky and it’s either right where I left it or someone someplace found it and kept it in a safe place. Other times, it’s gone. And I only have myself to blame in that situation.

Another problem with this kind of plan is that it does not appear that after being caught, could the person arrested even be successfully prosecuted? Imagine the lack of laws in regard to “finders keepers” legislation that a competent attorney could drive a car through in court. Imagine a situation where the person arrested attests that they kept it for safekeeping until they got home in order to contact the owner in some way and because the officers arrested them before they could do that that they did not get to complete their plan. A lot of the charge has to be intent and it seems impossible to tell in this kind of situation. You know, contrived.

The purpose of the plan as stated is to stop thefts of personal bags in the downtown Albuquerque area. Tricking people who would not otherwise actually rob anyone by leaving a bag stuffed with valuables is dirty and can only distract officers from protecting ordinary citizens from actual criminals. This plan should never be awaken from its current slumber.