Friday, February 18, 2005

(yo, is this true?) does "finder's keepers" really have this kind of legal force?

From CNN.com:
"Shelbyville, Indiana (AP) -- Karrie Jeremiah pulled a discarded lottery ticket from a restaurant trash can and hit the jackpot.

Two other people had purchased the $5 Hoosier Lottery scratch-off ticket last week at the Chaperral Cafe. When a clerk at the downtown cafe told them it wasn't the $40 winner they were hoping for, they threw it away, lottery officials said.
It wasn't a $40 winner -- it was a $100,000 winner.

Jeremiah said she wondered whether the numbers were completely checked before the ticket was tossed. 'Who would ever throw this ticket in the trash knowing it was a $100,000 hit?' she said.

[...]

[Lottery security director Ellen] Corcella said the lottery was looking into the circumstances surrounding the ticket, but believed Jeremiah was the rightful winner.

'If I drop $100,000 in the street and walk away and the next person picks it up, it's their money,' she said."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

38 is Procfreak's poll's grand tally
verily around me all did'st rally
to drag'th LDM from depression's valley
Lo! a lonely waif alone in Love's back alley
- LDM

tina said...

That may be true, LDM, but on our poll, you lost out to a bottle of hair dye.

Greg said...

It can! The rules differ depending on whether the item was abandoned or misplaced, in the street or on private property, and what kind of item we're talking about. There's even an awesome name for part of this doctrine: treasure trove! And I feel very smart having said so before your law-professor audience chimed in.

dorotha said...

post something, man! what am i supposed to read????

jeremy said...

Greg: Thanks for the info! As someone who is always losing things by leaving them behind, it's important for me to know what my rights are.