How to return a found phone to the police. What to do if you find your phone on the street: possible consequences

Situations are not uncommon when passers-by find phones lost by someone on the street. Taking the device yourself, you run the risk. The finder of the phone may be accused of stealing it. As a result, you will have to explain how the gadget ended up in your possession, for what purpose you took it for yourself, and why you did not report it to the police. Let's talk about what to do in this case.

Accused of theft for finding a phone

Depending on the phone model, it can be very expensive, but mid-range gadgets are also of significant value. Selling the device at half price does not present any particular difficulties. Approximately every third theft is associated with theft of the phone.

Not less often gadgets are lost, and, accordingly, they are found. There are times when the person who found the phone is unfairly accused of stealing. However, the criminals detained with stolen devices can also claim that they found them in order to avoid punishment.

Let's figure out how theft and find differ from the point of view of jurisprudence:

• the subject of the incident is a telephone.

In case of theft, it is another's property, in case of a find, it is property that was removed from ownership under random circumstances;

• the object of the incident.

In this case, the object is the property rights; in case of theft, they are violated. Illegal seizure of property for the purpose of disposing of it causes material damage to the owner. When found, they dispose of the property, the owner of which is not known. Material harm is not inflicted on him;

• subject of the incident.

In case of theft, the attacker commits a mercenary crime. When found, he finds himself in the epicenter of a coincidence;

• a responsibility.

In case of theft under Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation imposes a penalty of up to 10 years in prison, combined with a fine of up to 1 million rubles. Upon finding, liability under the law does not come.

Let's figure out how to correctly act in the event of a lost or found phone, so that you don't get into trouble.

What to do if you lose your phone

The owner who has lost the phone usually tries to return it. The information contained in the device's memory is of no less, and sometimes even greater value.

In this case, three types of applications can be submitted to law enforcement agencies:

1. about the loss.

Sometimes finds are handed over to various public and private structures, and they can also be found during other events. If the device number is available, there is some possibility that it will be returned to the owner. The police do not take active actions on such statements, and the statement itself is reluctant to accept;

1. about the loss.

In this case, the applicant does not explicitly state theft, but does not exclude its likelihood. Here, the police are already obliged to take some action to clarify the circumstances of the incident and initiate a criminal case if there are signs of a crime. Such signs may be:

• cuts on the pockets of bags and packages, where, according to the owner's statement, the phone was located;
• the disappearance of the phone in a specific small space;
• the loss of a gadget left for a while. That is, the owner knows exactly where he left it, but did not find it upon his return;

1. about theft.

Theft is a crime, and the police are obliged to initiate criminal proceedings and actively engage in search activities.

Usually, accusations are brought against those who found the phone on the basis of the last two types of statements.

Information for those who found the phone

On the one hand, property that has turned out to be ownerless, including the telephone, cannot be the subject of theft, and accordingly, charges cannot be brought against it. On the other hand, this property does not become the property of the finder. Art. 227 and Art. 228 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation establish that the found thing is subject to transfer to the owner. If it is impossible to return the item, you must report it to the local government authorities or the police. True, no time frame has been set for this.

To obtain ownership of the found item, such a message must be made. Six months are counted from the moment the information is transferred to the police, if during this time the owner is not found, then the ownership is transferred to the finder. Until then, it cannot be sold, donated or otherwise disposed of. However, any liability for violation of these rules, if it is impossible to determine the owner of the found property, is not provided.

Nevertheless, there are times when something that you considered a find is theft:

• temporarily abandoned item. For example, a telephone lying on a bench at the entrance is not a find;
• exact knowledge of the owner or the ability to find him. The found phone must be disabled, it must not have a SIM card, number and other signs to identify the owner;
• all property found in the premises belongs to the owners of these premises;
• all property found in public transport is subject to transfer to the employees of the carrier company.

Actions if you find your phone

In order not to be undeservedly accused of stealing the phone, you should immediately transfer it to the owner of the premises or an employee of the organization where the gadget was found. Do not pick up the devices in places where they could be temporarily left or forgotten. Having picked up the phone, you should take measures to find its owner. If they do not bring any results, we recommend that you notify the police about the find. You are not required to transfer the gadget to anyone for safekeeping.

What to do if found on the street depends on the further thoughts of the owner of the find.

Perhaps the joy of owning someone else's thing will cloud the mind, and selfish feelings will arise.

This never leads to good, all the more it must be remembered that such means of communication are monitored by law enforcement agencies, and it is not clear what trace is going on from this phone.

Navigating the article

What is the difference between theft and the item found

What to do if you find a phone on the street and do not want to give it away, it is worth understanding what is special about a public act for which a punishment is provided, since it happened with a deliberate unlawful commission.

Theft is characterized by:

• misappropriation of someone else's
• the seizure of the item from the owner, while the owner suffered material damage
• misconduct committed on purpose, intentionally

Any thing found is assessed as an act:

• with the receipt of a product accidentally disposed of from the property of an unknown person
• did not cause special material damage, since the item was lost
• unforeseen

The correct setting of the border between thefts and finds leads to the justification of bringing to justice for violations of the rules of relations between citizens or refusal to make a legal decision.

What to do if I found a phone on the street and want to return it, even nowadays such questions arise.

In any case, with a multipolar desire, you need to imagine what it means to find a mobile phone:

• is not considered a theft by law if found on the road
• a smartphone is seen on a bench in the park, the owner has temporarily moved away and will soon return, its appropriation by an outsider is classified as theft
• a found thing is considered a violation, while it is known to whom it belongs and where the owner is located, and at any time he can remember the place of his loss
• tangible assets left in a public place, restaurant, train station, bus - are considered the property of the owner of the vehicle or premises until they are claimed, the return must be made to them

In order not to attract problems, you should act prudently:

• give the mobile phone to the owner of the establishment or the driver of the transport, if the device is found there
• you do not need to pick up a thing that is with other objects, knowing that the owner will return for them
• if the owner of the phone is known, it must be handed over to the owner
• a street find can be turned on and viewed in the address book of his close friends, you can call to make an appointment to return

The use of all methods of returning that did not lead to a result leads to a single path of communication to the point of law enforcement.

A police officer should not withdraw the phone, but only accept the application, since in six months it will rightfully belong to the one who found it, provided that the owner does not show up during this period.

Even when law enforcement officers will not actively search for an item, an application may be submitted to this institution:

• confirming the fact of a lost mobile phone

To voice the disappeared phone as stolen is not worthless, since you will need signs of a criminal act, and only after that, they open a case with a criminal classification.

It is necessary to prove the grounds, with their help the initiation of the case will follow:

• a place was cut, it contained a stolen object, it could be a pocket, a bag
• the space where a smartphone could be stolen is limited and there were people who were aware of its belonging
• phone left for a short period

The investigator will consider the reasons provided; if there are insufficient statements in the fact of theft, a refusal to initiate a case will follow. A person will be punished if the situation is assessed and the case can be retrained for theft, not believing the statements that he found the apparatus.

The line between these different actions is thin, and depends on the intentions of the person who appropriated the phone, even after its return to the owner, it will be considered a crime in the presence of signs of Article 158 of the Criminal Code.

This is because the criminal act is committed from the moment that someone else's object was deliberately in the hands of someone else, and the one who stole began to dispose of the property at his own discretion. This does not take into account what motive served as the engine for the return, but the prosecution with punishment may end if the parties agree peacefully. This is possible for persons who have not been noticed before in such misconduct, who have no previous convictions.

An innocent person, after giving law enforcement officers an incorrect assessment from the owner of the phone, who deliberately distorted the whole situation, will have to fight to clear his name from evil thoughts.

What you need to do if you find a phone - in the video:

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An unexpected find of someone else's thing always evokes ambiguous feelings, so the question is natural: "What to do if you find a phone on the street, in public transport, on a park bench?" We will tell you whether the law will consider you a thief, what consequences the found gadget will entail and how to do the right thing.

Found or stolen?

The law clearly delineates the concept of theft and finds, while they also have common features. The difference should be understood in order to decide what to do if you find a phone on the street, and you have no desire or opportunity to return it to its owner.

And in the case of theft and in the case of a find, we are talking about the appropriation of someone else's property, and if it is not returned - and about causing material damage. But the stolen thing is appropriated deliberately, perhaps the offender thinks about the "operation" for a long time, calculates options, looks for opportunities to "pull off the deal." When you find it, everything happens in a matter of seconds: you just walk, for example, along an alley in the park and see a flickering smartphone. You do not intentionally harm the owner: he can only complain about his own absent-mindedness.

The similarities and differences will help to clarify the table:

Petty theft of Article 158 of the Criminal Code is punishable by 15-fold compensation for the stolen thing (but not less than 1,000 rubles) or arrest for 15 days. Therefore, you should think carefully before taking what does not belong to you.

You will be rightly called a thief if:

• you took the phone while walking past the shop, while the owner went to the nearest kiosk to buy shawarma or coffee;
• you knew who owned the gadget and where at the time of the act the owner was;
• people around gave information about the owner, but you ignored it and did not contact to return the find.

The act of a law-abiding citizen

For most of those who have found a phone, it is important to know what to do according to the law.

If a thing is left in a public place, for example, a restaurant or in a minibus, then until the owner shows up, it is the property of the owner of the premises or vehicle. That is why gadgets found in transport, at a train station, in a store or cafe should be given to the administrator. There is no alternative!

Important! You should definitely not take your smartphone out of your bag or backpack, where other things are lying - this will be an obvious theft.

What if the child finds the phone? It would be correct to flip through the phone book of the smartphone and dial several numbers, trying to determine the owner. After the return of the loss, it is possible that material reward for honesty is also possible, especially if the smartphone is expensive or contains important information.

And if you find a phone without a SIM card - what to do then? Or is there not a single number in the memory, the device is blocked and there is no way to contact the owner? You need to visit the nearest police station and write a statement about the found value (Articles 227-228 of the Civil Code). The application must clearly describe all the circumstances and tell about attempts to contact the owner of the found item.

Please note that a police officer has no right to seize a smartphone. He only has to accept your application, write down the contact details. If after six months the owner of the smartphone does not show up, the gadget will legally become the property of the one who found it.

Should I go to the police or not?

A visit to the police allows you to count on a bonus - a reward of 20% of the value of the lost item, but visiting the site also has an unpleasant moment. If the owner makes a statement about the theft, then you will have to prove that you did not steal the smartphone, but found it. As arguments, the owner of the loss can provide the following facts:

• the bag / backpack / pocket where the smartphone was located are cut;
• the place where he last held a smartphone in his hands was limited and there were acquaintances nearby who could easily explain whose phone it was;
• the phone was left for a short time (for example, as in the above-mentioned situation with a bench and a short trip to the kiosk for food).

On a note! The law does not provide for punishment for failure to report a found item or for its failure to return to the owner.

But even if you do not visit the police, and the owner of the smartphone submits an application with a request to declare a wanted list, if a “found thing” is found with you, unpleasant proceedings cannot be avoided - and this is at least.

If you wish, an unintentional act can be easily reclassified into theft, especially if the stolen thing remained with you, and you began to dispose of it at your own discretion, for example, you decided to sell, donate, etc.

A good safety net against accusations of theft will be the announcement of the find... Post a message in popular public social networks, secure a copy of the information on your personal page, if not lazy - post ads in the vicinity of the place where you found the valuable thing. Just do not describe what you found in too much detail, so that the respondent named one of the features of the smartphone, for example, a scratch, a pink case with a cat or a beautiful brunette on the headband. So you will definitely understand that you are returning the thing to the real owner, and not to the seeker of easy money.

Thinking about what to do if you find someone else's phone, remember the folk wisdom: things obtained without labor do not bring happiness. Everyday practice has proven that what is found is followed by double or even triple losses, and not always, unfortunately, material ones. So if you are superstitious, do your best to return what you found to the owner.

In order not to make an unnecessary headache, it should be clear what to do if you find your lost phone. Return it to its owner as soon as possible. After all, for the return of the lost, you can receive not only thanks, but also a reward, and if you keep your smartphone for yourself and do not take any steps to return it - a criminal article. Do the right thing!

The problem of qualifying the actions of citizens who find telephones on the street remains relevant today. It is necessary to understand the differences between finding a thing and its appropriation.

What should be done in case of a find?

The grounds for acquiring ownership are detailed in Ch. 14 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, including for ownerless things. Also, the law regulates the procedure for detecting objects.

An abandoned thing is different from a thing temporarily left unattended or lost. The character is determined by the appearance - useful consumer properties are lost, as well as at the location - a landfill, other waste bins.

In case of theft, robbery and robbery, property is stolen without the consent of the owner. In case of waste and fraud, the owner himself transfers the things to the attacker. When someone else's property is found and it is appropriated, the lost thing is turned in its favor.

If you find someone else's phone, consult with our specialists on the algorithm for further actions by contacting them by phone or via the website.

Actions if you find your phone

Article 227 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation determines the procedure for the person who found the lost phone. If this happens indoors, you must return the device to the owner of the institution. Failure to fulfill the obligation under Art. 227 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, that is, the appropriation of a find is not theft. However, in order not to solve problems with law enforcement agencies, in our opinion, it is better to pass by the abandoned property. Judicial practice on the qualification of the acts of citizens who appropriated the find is ambiguous.

But if you want to help the owner find the loss, it is better to hand the thing over to the official or employee of the institution where the find was made. You can try calling someone from your contact list and reporting what happened. You can also submit your ad to your local newspaper. Do not describe the device in detail so as not to give it to a fraudster.

Note!

So that you are not accused of embezzling someone else's thing, you can take it to the police by writing a statement about the find. If the owner is not found, you can legally keep the phone.

If you do not return the gadget, then, most likely, you will have:

• trouble with law enforcement if the owner writes a statement about theft. It is not easy to prove that the device was not stolen;
• pangs of conscience - a child could have lost a mobile phone. If you put yourself in the shoes of the parents and the child, you are unlikely to feel good. It is also possible that low-income citizens have lost their mobile phones.

There will be no troubles only if the former owner of the smartphone did not write a statement to the police.

Difference between find and theft

Determining the difference between an unattended thing and a lost one is difficult. The significance of this difference affects the qualification of the actions of the person who discovered such an object and appropriated it to himself.

The above cases differ in the will of the owner. If a thing is left unattended, the owner is to blame for this, who showed inattention. In case of loss, the thing is removed from the possession of the owner in addition to his will.

Common sense must also be used to distinguish between find and theft. For example, if there is a bicycle near the store, it rather means that it was left for storage, rather than lost. If you explain to the investigator that you thought the bike was lost, they won't believe you. The same is true if a mobile phone is left near a cup of tea in a cafe. In this case, it becomes obvious that its owner will be looking for a forgotten thing or deliberately left for a while.

Let's list the cases when something that you considered a find is theft:

• temporarily abandoned item. For example, a telephone lying on a bench at the entrance is not a find;
• exact knowledge of the owner or the ability to find him. The found phone must be disabled, it must not have a SIM card, number and other signs to identify the owner;
• all property found in the premises belongs to the owners of these premises;
• all property found in public transport is subject to transfer to the employees of the carrier company.

Cases from judicial practice

The found thing should not be appropriated to yourself, as you can get into an unpleasant story. Semyon I. went on vacation with his family to a resort and found an Iphone 4S smartphone, but instead of reporting the find to the police, he left it to himself, knowing that the owner would find the device by the IMEI number in a maximum of an hour. This frivolity led the man to the pretrial detention center, where he was kept before the trial, despite evidence that he did not steal the gadget, but only temporarily used someone else's thing and handed it over to the police on demand. The court found I. guilty and fined him 50,000 rubles, taking into account that the man had been in custody for 5 months.

This is a typical situation. One citizen lost his smartphone, another found it. If the latter had immediately announced the find, the story would have ended. But the man did not report to the police, look for the owner, take any other steps, and later claimed that the gadget was turned off. Let's leave this question on his conscience, but by his act I. showed that he was not going to return the phone, since he began to use it himself, without trying to find the owner. The story looks like the phone was stolen. The situation suggests that the consequences of such behavior are dire.

Investigators and prosecutors often qualify the appropriation of found items as theft, despite the fact that this act was decriminalized in 1996.

The signs of theft are set out in Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:

• secret theft of someone else's property;
• turning someone else's thing in your favor.

Sometimes the theft is committed without unlawful seizure of property from the owner. Such an act is provided for in a separate Art. 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The disposition of the norm indicates that appropriation or embezzlement are ways of stealing property entrusted to the culprit. The confiscation of valuables does not take place, since they are legally in the possession of the perpetrator.

Wrongfulness consists in the ways of handling other people's property. In the presence of appropriation, it turns in favor of the perpetrator, and in case of embezzlement - in favor of other persons.

Nobody trusts a lost thing to anyone, which means that it is impossible to steal it through appropriation, such actions should not be regarded as theft. But in such a situation, civil liability may arise for the use of someone else's property, and in some cases - administrative or criminal liability for arbitrariness.

As a positive example of judicial professionalism, one can cite the acquittal made on November 29, 2011 by the Sholokhovsky District Court of the Rostov Region. Another positive example was published in the review of the judicial practice of the Moscow Regional Court. There was a cancellation of the guilty verdict followed by the termination of the criminal case from the cassation ruling of June 21, 2011 in case No. 22-4060.

The Leningrad Regional Court on 27.03.2013 overturned the district court's verdict in case No. 22-614 / 2013 due to the lack of corpus delicti in the actions of the accused as provided for in paragraph 2 of Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, according to which the citizen was found guilty. The man was at the stadium and found a cell phone under the seat, from which he pulled out a SIM card and appropriated it. The victim, a member of the football team, could not say for sure whether he left the gadget in his clothes in the locker room or not. Despite the lack of evidence of the suspect's guilt in seizing the phone from the owner's possession, the preliminary investigation authorities qualified his actions under a criminal article. The prosecutor's office approved the indictment and sent the materials to the court. The defense, analyzing the history of the legislation on criminal liability for the misappropriation of the find, came to the conclusion that there was no corpus delicti in the man's actions. The cassation instance agreed with the arguments of the defense and terminated the proceedings.

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Nikolaev Alexander Gennadievich

My client was prosecuted for finding a phone in an entertainment center. A criminal case was opened for theft with significant damage. In the case, it was established that the phone was lost, and the client found it on the floor. However, despite this, the principal was prosecuted and convicted, having assigned him a fine of 10,000 rubles. After going through all the courts in the Chuvash Republic, the courts did not pay any attention to my arguments about the absence of corpus delicti in the actions of my client, namely, that he did not steal the phone, and the phone itself was out of the possession of the owner against his will. For the misappropriation of a find, only civil liability is provided in the form of collecting the value of the found thing, under certain circumstances.

Only when I applied to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation with a supervisory appeal, I was able to achieve the cancellation of the verdict and acquittal of my client. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation agreed with my arguments and dropped the criminal case for lack of corpus delicti.

According to the norms of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Article 227), the person who finds the lost thing is obliged to immediately notify the person who lost it, or the owner of the thing, or someone else known to him who has the right to receive it, and return the found thing to this person.

If a thing is found in a room or in transport, it must be handed over to the person representing the owner of this room or means of transport. In this case, the person to whom the find was handed over acquires the rights and bears the obligations of the person who found the thing.

This article of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation formulates the legal obligations of the person who found the lost thing. The appropriation of a find is a violation of these obligations, characterized by gratuitousness and dishonesty, and therefore does not give the finder protection against the owner's subsequent demand for the return of the found thing and, in addition, deprives him of the right to reimbursement of expenses and remuneration.

Part 2 of Article 227 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation if the person who has the right to demand the return of the found thing, or his place of stay is unknown, the finder of the thing is obliged to report the find to the police or to the local government.

This rule of law does not indicate either the time frame during which the finder of the thing must report the find to the police, or the punishment in case of failure to comply with this requirement.

Part 4 of Article 227 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the person who found the thing is responsible for its loss or damage only in case of intent or gross negligence and within the value of the thing.

Thus, the law obliges a citizen to return the found thing or report it to the police, and only after that he has the right to demand a reward.

Of course, a find must be distinguished from a forgotten thing and one left under supervision. In this case, it is important that the owner of the thing knows where it is and it is obvious that he intends to return for it. There can also be controversial situations and it is impossible to give an unambiguous answer.

In such cases, I advise you to pass by and not pick up other people's things.

If I find my phone on the street, is it considered a theft?

Good afternoon, I am interested in the following question: if a person found a thing on the street (in this case, a mobile phone), but did not try to find the owner of this thing on his own, but decided to keep it for himself. Is this considered a theft? Police officers claim that this act falls under the article “theft”, although there is a video from an outdoor surveillance camera that the person picked up this thing, and did not pull it out of his bag or pocket. After the appeal of the police officers, the man immediately returned the found thing. Will this trial and punishment follow?

Answers

Mukhin Dmitry Andreevich Lawyer

In this case, I do not observe the corpus delicti under Article 160 (Misappropriation or embezzlement), since there is no sign of the objective side of the crime - "property entrusted to the perpetrator." It is also impossible to name his actions as a find, since the Civil Code of the Russian Federation also requires the finder of the thing to immediately inform the owner of the thing (if who knows), or to the police or local authorities (Article 227).

It all depends on the intent of the person - if he found the phone and he had an intention to appropriate it for himself, not to give the owner his thing, and he understands that the owner of the thing is not watching him (i.e. a sign of secrecy), then his actions should be qualified as theft (Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) Even though he returned the thing to you, the crime under this article is considered completed from the moment the person who stole the thing, acting with direct intent, understood that he had the ability to dispose of the thing. If there was such an opportunity, then this crime is over. The fact that he returned the thing (the motive for the return is not important - it can be both fear of punishment, and sympathy for the victim and other motives), then criminal prosecution can be terminated under Articles 75 and 76 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Exemption from criminal responsibility in connection with active repentance or reconciliation with the victim).

I want to note that this rule applies only to persons who have not previously been convicted and accused of a crime of small and medium gravity (this includes part 1 of Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) You can demand from him to compensate for moral damage within reasonable limits, so to speak , finally exhaust the conflict. If you want a person to be held accountable, you can contact the police. Provided that the phone is returned, a clause may apply, under which it will be exempted from liability. If this person was previously convicted, then the return of the stolen thing will be regarded as a mitigating circumstance.

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Found a phone, accused of theft

Difficulties in distinguishing between theft and the finding of telephones may cause unreasonable bringing of citizens to criminal liability under Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The reasons for this and how to deal with the found phone - you will find out in this article.

Accused of theft for finding a phone

According to statistics from law enforcement agencies, one third of all property crimes committed are associated with various types of phone theft. For an even greater number of complaints about theft of phones, police officers decide to refuse to initiate a criminal case due to a banal loss.

Incorrect differentiation of a criminal offense (Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) - theft and civil law relations associated with the discovery of a find - a mobile phone often leads to unjustified and illegal prosecution of a person.

Table 1. Comparative characteristics of theft and finds as social acts

What to do if you lose your phone

Owners who are left without their phones turn to the police with three types of statements:

In this case, the owner hopes that the police will record the individual number and inform the applicant if it is lost. At the same time, law enforcement agencies do not always take active steps to search. This does not always suit applicants and two other types of applications appear.

1. Statement of loss, when the owner does not exclude both the fact of loss and the fact of theft.

In this case, the police conduct initial search actions in order to establish the whereabouts of the phone and the circumstances of its loss - talking with eyewitnesses.

The basis for initiating a criminal case under Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Theft" on the fact of the loss of a telephone may be:

• cut packages, pockets or bags that could contain the device;
• the loss of a mobile phone in a confined space in the presence of a circle of people who are aware of who it belongs to;
• the phone disappeared under the circumstances when the owner left it for a while, that is, the property was not lost, but left.

If, when clarifying the circumstances of the loss, the fact of theft has not been reliably established, the search for it is terminated.

Having checked the circumstances indicated in the statement, the police institute a criminal case, establish the location of the telephone and the person with whom it is located. In this case, it most often happens that the one who found the mobile was accused of stealing.

In other words, the reason why the person who found the mobile phone is accused of theft is the owner's incorrect assessment of the circumstances of the loss of his property, or deliberate distortion of the whole situation in order to find and recover his loss.

Information for those who found the phone

What the finder of the phone should know:

• The object for theft cannot be found, ownerless property - that is, a telephone that happened to be in a person's possession.
• But the theft takes place:
  • if the phone is temporarily left by the owner, who knows exactly where it is and is going to return for it,
  • the finder knows who owns the mobile phone, he can definitely guess where the owner is, and that the owner can return for his thing.
  1. All property left in certain places (airports, train stations, etc.), in transport and in premises, is in the possession of the owners of these premises and is subject to transfer to them.

If the phone is found in a place that excludes its loss, is turned off, without a SIM card or memory card, has no numbers in memory or is locked with a code, etc., then it is difficult and almost impossible to establish its owner. In this case, it may well be considered a find without identifying signs.

According to Article 227-228 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, upon discovery of a find, it must be immediately transferred to its owner. And if there is no way to establish the owner, the fact of the find is reported to the local government or the police. How long the find must be reported to the authorities is not stipulated in the legislation.

A person who has discovered a find, until the owner is established, has the right to keep it with him and not to hand it over for storage. However, the finder does not have the right to dispose of the find - to sell, give, destroy, etc.

Six months after reporting to the authorities, the person who found the lost property acquires the right of ownership to it.

The legislation does not provide for any kind of liability for failure to report a find, concealment of it, or for not returning it to the owner.

Actions if you find your phone

Summarizing all of the above, we determine the algorithm of what to do if you find a phone:

• The phone found in the building or transport, it would be more prudent to give it to the owners of the building or the driver.
• Left in a certain place or with certain objects that indicate that the owner is nearby is not a find.
• If you know anything about the owner, you can take the phone only with the aim of returning it to the owner.
• Having found a phone, you should ask those around you about the owner and try to turn it on and call the owner.
• You can report the find to the police, and after 6 months legally keep it for yourself if the owner is not found. The police have no right to take away the find, you are only obliged to hand it over to the owner.
• An apparatus found by chance is considered a find.

Therefore, if you find a telephone or other property of others, and you are accused of stealing money or any property, you should not rush to confess to a crime, agree to a criminal case in a special order, etc. It is more expedient to fight for your dignity, collect evidence and witnesses of your innocence, analyze the whole situation and understand the reasons that gave you a reason to consider the phone a find and ownerless thing, prove that you did not have malicious intent to steal someone else's property, and win the trial ...

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Personal / public diary of Eldar Murtazin

A rather instructive story happened and is unfolding now in Sochi, it is connected with how one person found someone else's phone and did not return it. However, let's give the floor to eyewitnesses, and only then I will express my point of view.

“A friend called me and said in a tear-stained voice:“ Trouble. Believe it or not, my husband could be jailed because of his cell phone. Although Romka is not guilty of anything! " She told a story that shocked me personally. It is difficult for a normal person to believe this.

And it was like this. On January 6, in the midst of the New Year holidays, Tatyana, together with her husband Roman Petrov and friends, went skiing in Krasnaya Polyana. We defended a long line at the box office, and before going for a drive, we decided to have a snack, they took food from home. And on the couch where they sat down, they found an iPhone. Everyone saw it! The phone was turned off at that moment.

Roman was very surprised. After all, recently he lost exactly the same mobile phone. The friends decided not to give the phone to the local staff, believing that someone would simply take the expensive thing for themselves. The question "what to do with an iPhone?" decided to postpone, ahead of them rest awaited. After skiing, we returned to the same room to warm up and have tea. All the time that they were there, they carefully listened to all the announcements that were broadcast over the speakerphone, waited for a message that someone had lost their mobile phone in order to return it. But not a single such message was heard. All this time Roman had the phone off.

The next day, after the holiday, Roman switched on the phone. The SIM card has been blocked. He assumed that the owner would most likely locate the phone and find it. I decided that in no case would he sell or ask for the phone, but would use it until the owner showed up. On January 24, Roman received a call from the police, who said that the owner of the phone had contacted them, and the find had to be returned. After that, the whole horror began!

Roman brought his mobile phone to the Department of Internal Affairs in the Adler District. There he was asked to show the place where he found the iPhone. Together with the police, Roman went to Krasnaya Polyana. And there Roman was detained, accused of stealing a mobile phone. It turned out that the phone belonged to an underage teenager Vladimir Matievsky, and his mother, Natalya Matievskaya, wrote a statement about the theft. Roman tried to tell and explain everything in detail, but the investigator did not seem to want to listen to him. Roman was allowed to make a phone call. He called a friend who was skiing with him the day the phone was found. The novel said about what had happened and that he was literally beaten out of him "to write a confession." It is likely that this whole situation could be quickly resolved if the police questioned Roman's friends. After all, they all saw perfectly well how he found the cell phone. But the police never interviewed any of them. Tatyana says that she literally begged the investigator to take testimony from her, as well as to question other witnesses, but he refused, citing lack of time. And this is called justice!

A day after the arrest of Roman, a hearing was already scheduled for the imposition of a preventive measure. The prosecutor and the investigator referred to the need to detain Roman on the grounds that he does not have a permanent registration and, allegedly, can hide from the investigation. Roman really does not have a permanent residence permit - he just did not have time to complete the documents after his recent move to a new apartment. On top of that, Roman suffers from bronchial asthma, but the authorities did not take this fact into account at all, appointing a preventive measure.

As we managed to find out from third parties, it was the Deputy Prosecutor of the Prosecutor's Office of the Adler District, Yuri Vladimirovich Sidorov, who made a mistake by signing the arrest warrant. Obviously, this was done in passing, without due process. To admit it is to commit a career "suicide." Therefore, the deputy prosecutor will go all the way so as not to lose his position. And the investigator, Daria Yurievna Novikova, is young and inexperienced, a recent graduate of the university. Probably, in the struggle for a place in the sun, she decided to plant the first one she came across, not understanding the case. There is no objective evidence from the materials that the phone was secretly stolen and not lost. In addition, the file indicates that Roman voluntarily handed over the found phone to the police officers.

Tatiana tried to contact the owner of the phone and his mother, but they do not make contact. The applicant turned off all telephones known to Tatiana. She found this guy's page on social networks, on the Internet, sent him messages, but he did not react in any way. In such a situation, all hope is for lawyers. But they say that it is impossible to fight legal arbitrariness by legal methods; In an informal conversation, the lawyer told the relatives that changing the preventive measure in Sochi costs 20 thousand dollars, and the acquittal is several times more expensive. Considering what arbitrariness is going on in the authorities, it is useless to hope for the honesty of the court.

A terrible picture is emerging. Because of the lawlessness of the Sochi police, an innocent person who has two children as his dependents may end up behind bars for several years. He has been in a pre-trial detention center in Armavir for over a month. Roman is 30 years old, he is a man of a creative profession, works as a designer, in his field he is considered a professional with a capital letter, he never had problems with the law. His friends are shocked by what happened, they are sure that Roman could not commit the theft. He had no thoughts to appropriate an expensive phone for himself. He sincerely believed that the owner would definitely be found, and he would calmly return this iPhone to him. Now Roman faces 3 to 5 years in prison.

My friend Tatiana and I ask you: HELP! Is there really nothing you can do in this situation? Will werewolves in uniform continue to drink the blood of honest people with impunity? I am ashamed of our country. For what, that in the city, which in 2014 will host the Winter Olympic Games, truly medieval "order" reigns. What kind of security can we talk about? Is the reform, which the authorities have already been buzzing about, is just another deception of people before the elections. Why was the police renamed the police, if everything in it remains the same - as they took bribes, they do, just as they imprisoned innocent people, they continue to imprison them! And they wanted to spit on all the presidential decrees! Journalists, human rights defenders, let's all together stop this chaos! You can't live like that! Please, help!"

If we discard the emotional component, which shows through in every sentence, stigmatizing "arbitrariness", young and inexperienced employees, and so on, then we are left with a rather banal situation.

One person lost his phone, another found it. No story would have happened if the one who found the phone announced it over the speakerphone, through the highway administration. And I think that after such an announcement, it was possible to calmly give up the phone or leave your coordinates so that they could pick it up. And the story would have ended there.

The second point is rather unusual. The person who found the phone claims it was turned off. Perhaps, but it's hard for me to imagine that going for a ride, I'll turn off the device. I can transfer to vibration mode, but turn it off? Absolutely not. Let's leave it on Roman's conscience, in what condition he found the phone. I am concerned about the other part of this question, why did Roman not try to turn on the device? It is logical that if you find a phone, try to return it to its owner. To do this, you need to try to turn it on. However, Roman sat and listened to the announcements without doing an elementary thing. At that moment, de facto, he already began to use someone else's thing, since his actions (and not desires) indicate that he was not going to return the phone.

Further more. Returning home, Roman began to use the phone. He did not call any number from the address book that was available to him. He simply used the apparatus until the moment when they came to him for him. This is not at all like the actions of a person who wants to return the phone and does not use someone else's.

It is not so important whether the phone fell out initially or was stolen. From the point of view of the investigation, the story looks like the phone was stolen. And there is direct evidence of this in the form of the behavior of Roman, who made every effort not to return the device. I think it will be a good lesson for him and his family.

I do not know how to hammer it into the heads of such Romanov, but the consequences of such behavior are a consequence and a rather tangible headache, and it is also possible even a criminal case.

The rules of conduct at the moment when you find a mobile phone are as simple as possible:

Try to understand who could have lost him

Find the administrator of a cafe, bar, restaurant, airport, and so on, give the phone to him (there is a room for lost things at airports)

If the device works, then dial the last numbers or find the entry Home, Mom, Dad and so on

Do not use the device, do not make your calls, do not turn it off

Do not throw out the SIM card and do not try to insert your

If there is a police station nearby, you can hand over the phone there by asking for a receipt for the found device (that one is still a gem, once it went through it)

Do not ask or demand any money when returning the device, it is also illegal

During my life, I have found about a dozen devices on the street. Each time he returned them to their owners, finding them. It is a matter of desire. And I was never tempted to keep my phone (or anything else, although some of the finds were very expensive). It is not your thing, and its value to the owner is much greater. Give someone else's and live in peace. And then there will be no complaints against you. And the history of Roman, of course, is typical for our area and time. "Decent" modern person.

More blog entries

if there was a password, then he could not use it later

you have a beggar philosophy. It's nothing personal, it's just how I see it. Learn to make money. I did it, there is nothing difficult about it, you can too.

yes you are a dangerous person)

1- that's right, the mobile phone is turned off - a false impression is created that they won't or won't be able to search for the phone ... and yes - the mobile phone is expensive, there is more chance that a person will want to take it at all.

2- yes, the owner will not call, in this particular case the “owner” already knows where and who has his phone - and the “owner” of this phone is not a teenager, but a group of people for whom he is just a working tool , there is a "sweep" - the "client" is artificially convinced that he will remain unpunished

3- after making sure that the client is “on the hook” - he does not go to the police, does not look for the owner, does not announce the find on the billboards of the city and country (joke), the client is called to a certain police department, department of internal affairs, management - in short, where it will be more convenient “ client "to promote and the banal" milking "begins, in which there are investigators, prosecutors, judges ...

4- if a person does not "spin" then even if he sits down - well, it didn't work out with this, he will come out with another, and their conscience does not torment them, they are sure that they have such a job, to plant people, it does not matter, is guilty or no (the psychology of an ordinary cop - I know firsthand), but if he is spinning and gives a decent "milk" - the case goes down on the brakes (in 90% of cases, and the case is not, a linden, nowhere officially carried out) ...

5- lawyers do not talk ... they perfectly understand what the matter is, and perfectly understand that no one will give them to win this case - how many heads will fly, cops, prosecutors, judges, etc., here it will not be about several thousand dollars on the "mercy" and about life - for this they will knock anyone down ...

... ..notice that these matters are mainly carried out by the "cops" youth - they do not yet have access to the larger "feeding troughs", therefore they have to interrupt with such "substitutions" ... it is banal to the point of horror, right?

you don't have to involve the operator .... "the owner", stood a couple of meters away and saw who found the phone, and with their ability to find out more about this person - name, address, phone number, etc. - elementary, the answer to everything in my post above.

Believe it or not, Eldar, this is how it happens in life.

does not always help and often "justice" comes too late.

It is not clear how you can accuse a person of stealing if he himself brought him to the police station? If I wanted to hide then, being afraid of a call from the police, I would have thrown him out!

I think the police and the prosecutor should be punished, they should be given a bribe as they ask, and the metropolitan prosecutor's office should be involved in this case. Those will catch the next werewolves in uniform and will be happy.

Oh well. For example, here is how the legislation of the Russian Federation regulates actions when finding a thing. Although this is not the Criminal Code, it is quite possible that after a couple of decisions of the Supreme Court, violation of these rules is interpreted as theft and this can lead to criminal liability.

Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Article 227. Find

1. The finder of the lost thing is obliged to immediately notify the person who lost it, or the owner of the thing, or someone else known to him who has the right to receive it, and return the found thing to this person. If the thing is found in the premises or in transport, it is subject to surrender to the person representing the owner of this premises or means of transport. In this case, the person to whom the find was handed over acquires the rights and bears the obligations of the person who found the thing. 2. If the person who has the right to demand the return of the found thing or his place of stay is unknown, the finder of the thing is obliged to report the find to the police or to the local government. 3. The finder of the thing has the right to keep it with himself or to deposit it with the police, local self-government body or a person indicated by them. the amount of revenue. The money received from the sale of the found thing shall be returned to the person entitled to receive it. 4. The finder of the thing is liable for its loss or damage only in case of intent or gross negligence and within the limits of the value of the thing.

I had exactly the same situation many years ago. On the contrary, he lost his phone. Mount Trostyan, Slavsk, Ukraine? Alcatel phone. I don't remember the year

Lost or stolen ... It's very simple: you've lost an expensive phone and want to return it. What to do? Post a loss announcement? Is that what a teenager would do, who, perhaps, himself would have pocketed a phone that was accidentally found.

And if you write a statement about the theft, then there is a real chance to return the phone. The "victim" most likely does not think about the consequences at this moment. The question remains, what to do when the phone is found? Admit it to a lie or leave it as it is? Yes, rather the second. And conscience in this case will not suffer much, since it is very likely that the finder still wanted to appropriate the phone.

And they want to give three years to the cold-blooded murderer of two people in Vladikavkaz. Allegedly killed in a state of passion. He shot two lying and immobilized ... And you say "rightly for theft, it will be a lesson."

I read the article and the reviews - I was disappointed.

For a long time he worked as a guard in a bar in the center of the city of St. Petersburg.

All left documents, clothes, telephones and other gadgets (I even had binoculars in my memory), gold jewelry, etc., etc. were always immediately given to the bartender. 90% returned for everything and people were pleased. For the things given away, they never demanded a reward.

"Good name and morality" is more important than someone else's thing, because you have to live with it.

I worked as a security guard in a bar in the center of St. Petersburg.

Any things found, documents, technical devices, valuable jewelry and so on were always given to the bartender. In 95% of cases they returned for the finds, sometimes they came in a month (I remember the case with the new expensive binoculars) - everything was returned to the owners, no reward was demanded.

My personal opinion is that only you can decide what to do with the find, there is no single recipe ...

And the moral side of the question is that you have to live with it ...

Then they will find it by IMEI, and after all these actions do not get out at all that “I found it, I wanted to return it”.

Oh, Eldar, Eldar.

Let's take another look:

1. The man found the phone.

2. Apparently, I decided to keep it for myself. (I believe that he really listened to these announcements with the thought: "They will announce - I will give it, no - I will leave it").

3. The owners reported the theft. (Otherwise, the police will not accept the application.)

4. The police, an amazing thing, found the phone, called our hero and he immediately returned it.

5. The idiot who decided to leave his phone number is put in the bullpen and is going to be put in a Russian prison. Despite the fact that this theft (which, for sure, is not theft), apparently, is his first offense.

6. The police demand a bribe of USD20K for changing the measure of restraint and even more for an acquittal.

So what? Do you think the punishment is proportionate to the crime?

Do you think that the actions of the police are quite normal? Do you know about the percentage of acquittals? Not aware of our judicial system? Not aware of the conditions in Russian prisons?

The novel may not have acted quite right, but it does not make him a thief. There is no article in the Criminal Code for “using the found thing”.

When I lost mine, I received an SMS from a new SIM card. when I finally got through there, they started to turn on the fool)) sorry, I didn't think to inform the competent authorities about it, I would immediately have a noble desire to return, like Roman))) An instructive story, next time I will definitely inform the police.

Yeah access without a password to the contact fox on the iPhone nu nu ... Fig you will find the owner it is 100%. Substitute is 100%. And the owner of the phone appears to be involved.

the password is put on the lock screen, you cannot put it separately on the contact list. what kind of nonsense are you talking about? Eldar has already answered about the password five times, and if you read the text carefully, you would understand that if there was a password on the phone, Roman would not be able to use it in principle, but he did. conclusion: there was no password.

The owner of the iPhone could remotely delete all data.

Imagine that you put your thing on the sofa in the lobby, go to the toilet, come back, and the phone is gone - this is called your negligence. And not theft at all. smoke the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

If not returned, then the accusations of theft will be for sure - you can simply not raise, but pass by. Knowing from our own experience how easily our cops, with a wave of the hand, turn a victim into a defendant, it is better to choose the option "DO NOT TOUCH".

and you can use it if you connect to tuna through your account

And what, to plant a person for not wanting to return the find? Where is the crime? Once I found it, then it was his business to return it or not. Or are they already imprisoned in Rashka for violating someone's ethical standards? Our prezik steals billions and nobody bothers him.

>> The finder of the lost item must immediately notify the person who lost it.

Yeah, you are walking along a dark street, there is no one around, there is a hundred-ruble note in front of you. And how do you know who the owner is?

sell in parts, screen, sensor, battery, camera module, speakers, microphone, cables, etc. and the board with the registered IMEI in the trash

And what have the police got to do with the wallets at the train stations? As far as I know, this is an old hackneyed trick of crooks for divorcing unlucky citizens, but what does the police have to do with it?

If you find the phone and do not return what is in danger

(as amended by the Federal Law of 07.02.2011 N 4-FZ)

2. If the finder of the thing refuses to acquire the found thing into ownership, it goes into municipal ownership.

then the clause of the appropriation of another's property applies?

and if the finder inserted his SIM card and the special program sent an SMS stating that they had inserted a new SIM card

and the owner rang and the phone was not answered and they cut it off, then what?

dumvyu in the application must write tav. lost, possibly stolen. the moment of loss is unknown and there was an opportunity for theft.

and if they found it but did not return it, then they did not fulfill the requirements of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, then what is the responsibility?

It depends on the interrogator.

will return, no so no. But in general, the police are obliged to take a statement about the loss of things, otherwise it seemed to me in the department they did not want to search for the lost phone. after all, by imei you can find a person who found and uses someone else's phone

As it was correctly noted above, the inquiry and investigation is not engaged in the search for missing things, but in solving the crime, i.e. no criminal case will be initiated, and without initiating a criminal case, it is impossible to file a petition with the court to establish a subscriber number for the person using your telephone, because obtaining such information contains a secret protected by law.

Thus, if you lose your cell phone, you will not "catch up" with your phone. When filing a statement about theft with your justified arguments, a criminal case will be initiated, and then it will be established that the suspect will show that he did not steal this phone, but found it and decided to use it, then you will be assigned the verification material under Article 306. At the same time, it is not guaranteed that the investigator or interrogator will immediately return your cell phone - he has the right to keep it in a criminal case.

As for conscience: phones were found in this way twice, twice returned to their owners. But it's good that they weren't blocked - no pin codes and so on. If it were so, we would begin to acquire hemorrhoids in the form of an appeal to the appropriate authorities - a big question. This is the head of the lost, not the one who found

2. The fact that a person has lost a thing, he has not lost the ownership of this thing.

3. The finder of the phone is using it illegally, since he has no rights to this thing.

4. If you can prove that it is your phone (checks.), Then file a report with the police about the loss of your phone.

5. When they will take an explanation from you, speak as it really is. That you know where the phone is, and you are not given it voluntarily.

6. After the police officer contacts the owner of the phone, I am sure that it will be returned to you voluntarily. Otherwise, it will already be theft.