Quote Originally Posted by Frog
Daq, I doubt your bike is attended constantly while you are out and about so I guess if someone finds it by the road it will be ok for them to take it?
I don't think that's what Daq is saying. He's suggesting that if he was careless enough to leave it unlocked and unattended by the road, then he would personally blame himself just as much as the person who took it, regardless of what moral or legal duty the finder may have.

Most of the discussion here, however, is based on the subjective moral and objective legal duties of the finder. EOSThree's situation appears to be a case of mislaid property - not lost or abandoned in the legal sense, but mislaid. Generally speaking and depending on the jurisdiction, the finder of the mislaid property has a legal obligation to turn in whatever was found to the owner of the property the item was found on. EOSThree's legal right to the property is still, at that point, superior to the finder's.

In this case, tripod should have been given to a ranger or something to that effect. After a reasonable, and somewhat arbitrary, amount of time, the tripod if unclaimed would be given to the finder.

To what extent, however, people should be legally and morally protected from their own carelessness is clearly up for debate. As a finder, I would have turned it in. As the loser, I would have been disappointed - but like Daq points out, not surprised.