Inspired by this post, what actually does happen if you purchase such an auctioned vehicle and in the process of clearing it out find something of value or something dangerous?
I mean, suppose at the bottom of the truck was a layer of gold bullion? Or a case containing a few million dollars? Does it automatically belong to you?
I don’t know the answer to your question, but I do know what happens when the police recover your stolen vehicle and after you get it back, you find a gun in it.
After you take it back to the police, they go in and get it and appologize profusely.
A friend of mine bought a used car from a dealer. About a week later, his son pulled a baggie containing drugs out of one of the air vents. My friend immediately drove the car to the police, who pulled open the air vents and removed a few more baggies of drugs. The police took a bunch of info from him, and that was the last I heard of it.
I am not a lawyer.
However it seems logical that you just bought the vehicle.
If you find millions, they’re either stolen or lost. They don’t become your possession.
Same thing with drugs too.
If you get the vehicle home, open the boot, find loads of drugs and your next-door neightbour (a cop) promptly arrests you for possession + intent to distribute, you’re going to claim the drugs don’t belong to you.
If you bought it “as is” the money, jewels, bodies and drugs are yours. What you do with it is between you and your conscience.
I’m not sure that’s entirely true, legally speaking. For instance, I believe that there are laws in most or all of the U.S. regarding disposal of human remains, so if you found a body (or even body parts) in the trunk, and just tossed them in the trash can, you may be violating laws.
For illegal drugs, merely possessing them is probably illegal. Though I am unsure if you would be breaking the law by taking them out of the car and immediately tossing them in the trash (with the genuine desire to dispose of them).
I’d be interested in what the legal requirements are for reporting found contraband or other potential evidence of crimes and/or clearly lost property such as cash/gold.