Finders Keepers?

Prepared for print by Faigy Peritzman

I run a day camp, and at the end of every summer, I’m left with piles of items that were left behind. I send pictures home of all the forgotten items, plus call the ones with phone numbers written, but am still left with so many unclaimed items. What am I supposed to do with all of these?

The preferred manner of dealing with this common scenario is to place a sign in a prominent place (and/or email a copy to each parent) that all items left on the day camp grounds for more than a specific period of time, e.g., 30 days, are halachically considered ownerless (hefker). When the time period is over, you may keep those items for yourself, donate them, or discard them.

When walking through our bungalow colony, I always see items such as pacifiers, water bottles, sunscreen, and the like. Should I pick these items up and put them in a prominent place so the owners may find them more easily?

These type of items generally don’t have identifying marks (simanim), which means that the owner will likely be unable to identify the object as belonging to him and doesn’t expect to ever get it back. From a halachic perspective, he has forfeited his ownership and the finder may keep it (yiush).

But this only holds true if the item was found after the owner became aware that he lost the object and has therefore despaired of getting it back. If the finder picked up the item before the owner became aware of his loss, which means that he hasn’t yet despaired, then the finder may not keep the item, since it still belongs to the owner and must be returned to him.

Since it is sometimes difficult to determine when exactly the owner became aware of his loss, it’s advisable not to pick up the item but rather to just leave it where you found it, and hopefully the owner will find it on his own. If you already picked up the object, then you will need to hold on to it until you can locate the owner, which is likely not to take place until Eliyahu Hanavi comes and tells you who the owner is.