The owner of a safe left on the roadside during an inorganic rubbish collection in Auckland and believed to have contained as much as $30,000 has been located. Photo / 123RF
The owner of a safe left on the roadside during an inorganic rubbish collection in Auckland and believed to have contained as much as $30,000 has been located. Photo / 123RF
The owner of a safe containing cash that was picked up during an inorganic rubbish collection in Auckland has been identified.
The safe, which was left out in an inorganic rubbish collection containing cash believed to be as much as $30,000, was discovered by council contractors.
Waste Management, Council contracted rubbish collectors, stumbled upon the cash in the safe, which had been put out for collection in Hillsborough, an Auckland suburb last Wednesday.
The cash had been handed in to police following the discovery.
Police would be making ongoing inquiries over the coming days to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Before the owner had been tracked down the case raised the fascinating question about who can lay claim to valuables found on public property - and which has been put out as rubbish.
Barrister Marie Dyhrberg said in such cases it wasn't as simple as "finders keepers".
Anyone who found and kept a large sum of cash or valuable objects could be subject to "theft by finding" if they did not hand it in to police.
"Common sense would tell you no one would abandon [cash] and that's an oversight."
Police would be making ongoing inquiries over the coming days to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident. Photo / File
Theft by finding means you cannot assume because you found something abandoned that it now belongs to you.
Waste Management national manager Monica Cadman said the cash discovery was "acted on immediately".
Neither she nor police confirmed the amount, which the Herald understands could be as much as $30,000.
"We were made aware of the incident the same day and notified Auckland Council and police within 24 hours."
The money was handed over to police who confirmed no crime or theft occurred and no charges have been laid against the six people involved, Cadman said.
"Waste Management has strict policies that govern the inorganic collection service and are following our normal investigation process."
Police confirmed a sum of cash was handed in to the Otahuhu police station after a safe containing a sum of cash was found on March 7.
Dyhrberg said case law would guide any prosecution in a case like this, using the general principle of theft by finding.
While most inorganic rubbish can reasonably be assumed to be abandoned, in this case common sense dictated someone probably didn't mean to throw away cash of up to $30,000.
The fact it was a mistake did not reduce the original owner's claim to the money, Dyhrberg said.
The safe was discovered during an inorganic rubbish collection in the Auckland suburb of Hillsborough. Photo / Google
"The person who would argue 'look, we found the safe it was abandoned', common sense would say it's a safe, they couldn't get into it.
"You can't possibly have believe the owner abandoned that money."
There was no specific law governing when "finders keepers" applied or not, rather case law would be used to prove lawful ownership.
"You won't find the law sets it up, what you will find is the cases that went to the high court or the court of appeal and they set up certain circumstances.
