In message <fspnbh$f54$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, Keith F. Lynch
<kfl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes
>Doug Wickstrom <nimshubur@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>> No. Once you discard or abandon something, it's no longer your
>>> property. It belongs to whoever wants it and is willing and able
>>> to carry it away.
>
>> Keep believing that. I don't recommend acting on it, though.
>> You've already been a guest of the Governor of Virginia once.
>
>Since then I've read through the whole Code of Virginia. More than
>once. And I continue to check for updates. There's no law against
>informal recycling in Virginia.
I do know that under English Law if I leave something out for collection
by the refuse collectors it thereby becomes the property of the council
refuse department. It does not cease to have an owner as it has been
left for collection by a specific party. This has, on occasion, been
used to prosecute for theft a person who has taken discarded stuff.
Councils rarely feel any great need to enforce those rights but they do
have them. It is possible that Virginia could use the same kind of
theory to justify prosecuting under common law a person who takes from
the garbage, it would be rather strained but such things have happened.
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