An older man enters a Walmart in Albany, Georgia, sees 30 dollars lying on the floor, picks it up, and goes on his way. Nothing more.
That was enough for Albany police to post a blurry photo from the security cameras on Facebook on August 19 and announce that they are actively looking for him. There is a legal basis: Georgia Code § 16-8-6 establishes that keeping something you find, without making a reasonable effort to return it to its owner, is considered theft of lost or mislaid property. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 30 dollars or 30,000: the law does not distinguish between amounts, and the old saying “finders keepers” has no legal value in that state.
The case became a topic of debate on social media, where many people point out that almost anyone would do exactly the same thing when faced with a bill lying on the floor of a supermarket. Some users even offered to pay the 30 dollars out of their own pockets so that the police would leave the man alone.
