# Question about money and prison **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 7, 2016, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-money-and-prison/751435 "2016-04-07T13:25:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-money-and-prison/751435/21 "2016-04-07T17:40:17Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Did you hear about the intelligent guy who found the suitcase full of unmarked cash? Yeah, he had [a simple plan](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120324/). I think the lesson here, _Army of Darkness_, and _Jackie Brown_, is never take a role in which your character is married or having sex with to Bridget Fonda. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-money-and-prison/751435/22 "2016-04-07T18:06:27Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > They also position a uniformed officer nearby. If the suspect goes directly to the officer and turns over the valuables, they only get frisked and have their IDs run. If they go in the opposite direction or pass the officer, they get arrested by the plain clothes cops. WtF?! If I, as a honest citizen and Good Samaritan “got frisked and had my IDs run” I’d be pissed beyond belief. Complaints would be filed. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-money-and-prison/751435/23 "2016-04-07T18:45:54Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > WtF?! If I, as a honest citizen and Good Samaritan “got frisked and had my IDs run” I’d be pissed beyond belief. Complaints would be filed. It may have been part of the same mindset that led to the NYPD’s controversial Stop and Frisk program. Police were aggressively stopping and frisking people, especially (allegedly) minority group members. Reportedly, stopping and frisking has fallen significantly under the new mayor. But a lot of minority group members were equally angry at what they considered unjustified stopping and frisking. [Police are now issuing Stop and Frisks receipts](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/09/dont-forget-your-nypd-stop-and-frisk-receipt.html). (I’m not making this up.) ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-money-and-prison/751435/24 "2016-04-07T18:53:42Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > That would only cover items legally possessed by the previous owners. If they hid stolen money or loot in the house it still has to go back to the true owners. Hang on here there’s more to this… I recall reading a thread here a while back talking about how pawn shops operate, how they (and presumably regular people) can buy and sell stolen items perfectly legally (provided certain circumstances are in place… such as they can’t _know_ it’s stolen), and how no, your previously stolen property that you discover later in the possession of someone else does not have to be returned to you (except certain types of property and under certain circumstances). I don’t have the cite but the point is that it’s not automatic that something once stolen from you must be returned if found, or that someone else can’t end up legally possessing your stolen property. I think the thread was along the lines of why you can’t just take back your stolen watch from the pawn shop you later discover it in… it’s actually theirs now and you have to buy it back How this would apply to being in possession of government currency vs other types of material possessions I don’t know. Of course there’s the whole case of the prosecuters having to prove that money the ex-felon has actually is the same that was stolen years ago (rather than the lottery winnings he won yesterday). In the modern day it would probably be pretty easy to trace the cash you had or any kind of electronicly stored money. I guess you’d have to launder the money properly to be safe. I think the answer to the OP is that NO - the ex-crook isn’t free to retrieve the stolen money and keep/spend it; that’s a separate crime from the act of stealing it he already got busted for. But depending on circumstances it could be pretty hard to prove the money he uses later in life was in fact stolen years earlier. Also, it’d have to have been a pretty big amount for the authorities to actually follow the guy around checking. I doubt they’d bother if it was $500 worth of stolen quarters. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-money-and-prison/751435/25 "2016-04-07T19:12:49Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > That would only cover items legally possessed by the previous owners. If they hid stolen money or loot in the house it still has to go back to the true owners. Good point. That would apply to stuff you pick up at yard sales also I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-money-and-prison/751435/26 "2016-04-07T23:06:25Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > WtF?! If I, as a honest citizen and Good Samaritan “got frisked and had my IDs run” I’d be pissed beyond belief. Complaints would be filed. Yes that would help. A strongly worded letter to _The Times_ would be in order as well. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-money-and-prison/751435/27 "2016-04-07T23:12:18Z")
Our government, in its infinite wisdom and/or avarice, seems to have determined that _the very possession of a large amount of cash_ is, in itself, sufficient evidence to suspect and presume that said cash was wrongfully gained and/or is being used in the commission of crimes – typically drug crimes – and is thus subject to immediate forfeiture. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-money-and-prison/751435/28 "2016-04-07T23:16:23Z")
No, what you do is, after you get out of prison and establish your new life, you loudly and publicly pray to Offler the Crocodile God, and let him give you a “revelation” of where to dig to find long-abandoned buried treasure. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-money-and-prison/751435/29 "2016-04-07T23:33:53Z")
If someone gives value for an item and has no reason to believe that it is not being bought from the person who has true title to it, then (at least generally) the buyer receives title. The previous owner has the recourse of suing the person who stole it and had value given to them, but that’s often not a realistic option with stolen articles. Additionally, there is a difference in law between items that are abandoned and items that are mislaid. In the former, the previous owner has given up all title and whoever picks it up acquires title. In the latter, the finder only has a better claim to the item than the rest of the world, but not over the true owner. It’s those cases where you are supposed to do what you can to determine who the true owner is and return it to them. Turning it over to the state in some form is likely required. Generally, anything found in the trash is assumed to be abandoned, and any item that it clearly valuable that is not found in the trash is assumed to be mislaid. The real question is how you know whether something is mislaid or abandoned in ambiguous situations, such as finding a clearly valuable item in the trash or finding an object of indeterminate value somewhere it might have been left either intentionally or accidentally. For example, suppose you leave a restaurant and left on the table a business card. The restaurant may assume that you abandoned it (and are trying to advertise or something), but you may have actually just received it from the person listed on the card and meant to take it with you. I believe that if the restaurant were to throw the business card out, you would have no recourse against them for disposing of your mislaid property, because the restaurant had good reason to believe that you had abandoned it. Don’t quote me on that though, I just made it up and could be completely wrong. I am not a lawyer, just an accountant who learned some of this stuff for the CPA exam. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-money-and-prison/751435/30 "2016-04-08T04:52:20Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > I think the lesson here, _Army of Darkness_, and _Jackie Brown_, is never take a role in which your character is married or having sex with to Bridget Fonda. It didn’t work out well for Matthew Broderick in _The Road to Wellville_, Ian McKellen in _Scandal_, or Steven Webber in _Single White Female_ either. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-money-and-prison/751435/31 "2016-04-08T05:00:52Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > IIRC, you can’t be charged with possession of stolen goods for having the money you stole, unless the cash was clearly marked as to its source. “Where else would it come from?” is not proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and you don’t have to say anything about its source (right to remain silent). But the income tax angle is a good possible way to nail the holder of the cash - but you’d have to wait, I guess, until April 15th to be sure they are evading taxes. > > Thefy by finding - Seriously? Cases involve “found a sovereign” (what, 21 shillings?) Some pretty petty cases, back when theft was a serious charge. > > (There’s the joke when the new pound coin came out, it should be called a “Thatcher”. It’s thick and brassy and thinks it’s a sovereign.) In the USA, if police find you with a large amount of cash on you they can just sieze it without having to even arrest you. See Civil forfeiture law. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-money-and-prison/751435/32 "2016-04-08T05:34:36Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > Yes it’s illegal to keep money/stuff that you find. There’s even a name for the crime: [Theft by finding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft_by_finding). > > Always surprises me a little that I’m apparently the only person in the world that knows about this, considering that it’s on the law books in some form or another in most of the countries of the world. And it always surprises ME that people who are otherwise apparently intelligent are totally incapable of reading. I already mentioned those laws well before you came into this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-money-and-prison/751435/33 "2016-04-08T11:10:23Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > For example, suppose you leave a restaurant and left on the table a business card. The restaurant may assume that you abandoned it (and are trying to advertise or something), but you may have actually just received it from the person listed on the card and meant to take it with you. I believe that if the restaurant were to throw the business card out, you would have no recourse against them for disposing of your mislaid property, because the restaurant had good reason to believe that you had abandoned it. Don’t quote me on that though, I just made it up and could be completely wrong. If, on the other hand, the restaurant decided to keep or sell the business card, they’d have to do, at least, restitution, which is a real pain in the ass. So it’s much simpler to just throw the damn stuff out. [Flyer]: lighten up. I didn’t read your post as a specific reference to “Theft by finding” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-money-and-prison/751435.md?page=1)