In article ,
lid says...
On Wed, 26 Oct 2005 14:25:36 -0400, Ned Simmons wrote:
In article ,
lid says...
Suppose that you receive a parcel that you never expected. For example
a crotch rocket motorcycle engine. There is no return address. All
reasonable efforts to find the owner fail. No one contacts me in, say,
2 weeks.

Does this item become my property?

Would it be legal to throw it away in garbage?

Would it be legal to sell it on ebay?

Is there a registry of stolen motorcycle engines?

What if I sell it and a month later, an owner materializes. Do I owe
anything to the owner.

I am very leery of the idea of selling this motor on ebay. It looks
like plenty of stolen motorcycle stuff is sold there and I, with the
lame story of fedex leaving it in my driveway, would look like a
thief. If I do not mention that story at all, then people would ask
all kinds of pointed questions like "how did you end up with this
engine if you do not know anything about it".


It seems pretty simple to me. My impression is that when
you spoke to FedEx you thought you may have received the
package due to an error on the part of the shipper. In that
case FedEx has no reponsibility to straighten out someone
else's mess.

Now that you've ruled that out, call FedEx and tell them
it's not your engine and they need to come and get it and
do their best to get it to the rightful owner. It might irk
you that the engine may never get to its proper destination
(it would me), but I don't think you have any claim on it.
It's not like you found it in the street with no idea of
where it's been - it was consigned to FedEx and it's their
responsibility.

Ned Simmons



It was addressed to me, not to someone else.


But you said you think that FedEx addressed it to you in
error after damaging the original packaging. If that's the
case it's clear to me that you have no claim on the engine
other than the fact that it's sitting in your garage. Only
after making another attempt to explain this clearly and
unambiguously to FedEx, preferably in writing, and then
waiting a reasonable amount of time, would I consider the
engine mine.

Ned Simmons