Give It Back: Connecticut Law On Receiving A Package That’s Not Yours
Say, I come home one day from work and discover a package sitting on my front step.
Immediately, I think: “What has my wife ordered from Sephora, now?”
To my surprise, the package says it’s from Woot, and to make this a better hypothetical, written on the package is the following: “this box contains 3 bags of crap.”
“Bags of Crap!” I can’t believe it. I’ve wanted these forever, how they’ve eluded me. Then I realize, I’ve never won a “bag of crap” and I look at the address only to see that the package is that of my neighbor.
“Crap” I say. What am I to do with this crap?
The answer: Despite my crap envy, I must return it to my neighbor or I would be guilty of the crime of larceny in Connecticut:
Acquiring property lost, mislaid or delivered by mistake. A person who comes into control of property of another that he knows to have been lost, mislaid, or delivered under a mistake as to the nature or amount of the property or the identity of the recipient is guilty of larceny if, with purpose to deprive the owner thereof, he fails to take reasonable measures to restore the property to a person entitled to it. Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 53a-119(4).
Plus, failing to return the bag of crap would make me a crappy neighbor.
