What are the laws about taking abandoned vehicles home as your own? I found a boat washed ashore. It needs some fixing up, but I could give it a good home. Would that be stealing?
My suggestion is to report this boat to the police. There may be a missing person’s case involved here. Salvage laws vary, and they could provide some good advice in this particular case.
First, copy the registration number if it has one, and go tell the cops about it. They’ll check to see if it was stolen. Ask if you can keep it if it was not and they’ll say yes, because their found materials site is probably packed to the gunnels with bikes and such that they auction off yearly. You’ll need to run an ad in your local paper about the boat for a few days, usually free. If no one answers, save a copy of the ad, get the boat registered to you – if you plan on putting a motor on it, and the boat is yours.
If anyone shows up later for it, you can show him the ad to prove that you did not steal it.
In most States, you need to register a boat only if you use a motor on it. A row boat doesn’t usually require registration.
For starters, there’s a crucial legal distinction between “lost” property and “abandoned” property. In a nutshell, if it’s only lost, you lose the boat to the real owner. If it’s abandoned (i.e., the owner affirmatively decided to reliquish ownership), it’s yours for the taking. If it’s lost and you find it, you may be entitled to a salvage fee under maritime law.
In any event, call the cops or the Coast Guard. They’ll tell you what to do.
What exactly is your definition of “abandoned”? I often leave my boat unattended on the local lake, most folks know they are welcome to use it but I’d be highly pissed if someone found an abandoned boat and called it theirs.
If you found a scuttled and obviously abandoned boat on the bottom of the lake, I probably wouldn’t argue with you. If you found a boat that drifted from it’s tether leave the damn thing alone. If it’s my boat, you’d best be putting it back and hiding already.
On the other hand, if you gave it a new paint job before you returned it I would not be offended!
My legal dictionary, sadly, is on a truck somewhere between here and Abilene. And it’s not my definition that counts anyway, it’s the legal definition that matters. And suffice it to say that unless you have intentionally relinquished your owenership interest in a piece of property, you have not abandoned it. Leaving your boat tied up at the dock ain’t even in the same ballpark.
Do a search on the legal battle over the S.S. Central America, lost at the bottom of the Atlantic for more than a century, and you’ll see what I mean.
Boats have a body number, like cars, called HIN, Hull Identification Number and are required to be registered by most States and/or Coast Guard (I won’t go into details here). The boat is probably registered to someone and you would need to register it yourself before you can legally use it (check the laws of your state). Just taking it and using it would be pretty much like taking an abandoned car and using it. Doesn’t sound like a good idea to me.