Legal question
 

In article ,
Ignoramus3242 wrote:

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".

i

Look it over for serial numbers and contact the manufacturer. Ask
them the same battery of questions and see where it gets you.
Keep any and all labels and papers that were on the crate it was sent
in just in case.
Also, in case it came from ebay, scour for recent engine auctions and
see if the seller is someone you've worked with before. Could have
simply mixed up addresses.

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B.B. --I am not a goat! thegoat4 at airmail dot net