He didn’t steal, but he was still accused of stealing. It’s worth remembering these rules

Police officers from the Department for Combating Property Crime and Juvenile Delinquency at the Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski police station have detained a 50-year-old man. The man is suspected of using a card found in a backpack lying on the road eight times.

He did not steal the backpack that contained a wallet with PLN 250, documents and cards, so how can we explain that he was charged with theft?

Lost and Found: What to Do?

The Lost and Found Act imposes rights and obligations on both the finder and the competent authority.

• According to the regulations, a finder who knows who owns the item should notify that person immediately. If we do not know who owns the item or if we do not know the whereabouts of that person, we should notify the starosta (district office) as soon as possible.

• The starosty is responsible for storing found items and searching for their owner. However, if the item is worth less than PLN 100, the staroste (lost property office) may refuse to accept it for storage.

• If the value of the item exceeds PLN 100, and it is not possible to deliver the summons to collect to the authorized person or such person is unknown, the staroste will display an appropriate summons on the notice board at his office and will also publish an announcement in the Public Information Bulletin.

• If the estimated value of the found item exceeds PLN 5,000, the staroste will also place an announcement in the local or national press.

• If you find something in a public place, such as a shopping mall, train station, bus or train, you should go to the manager of the facility. He is obliged to keep it for three days and then hand it over to the district governor.

The situation is different when finding someone else’s ID card or passport.

• a found document should be returned to the body that issued it or to the Police – officers will pass it on.

• if the document was found in a public place, we return it to the nearest service point, e.g.
  – a document found on a bus – you can give it to the vehicle driver;
  – a document found at the airport – you can hand it in to the lost and found office;
  – if you find documents abroad, forward them to the nearest consular office.

Rules are rules, but many finders use the “third way”, i.e. they publish information about finding a document on the Internet. Facebook neighborhood groups are full of such announcements. Finders mean well, and usually know that such a photo should be anonymized, i.e. the first and last name, photos and other data should be covered up – despite this, this is not the correct behavior. For security reasons, we should never post photos of documents on the Internet, because we do not know what use a random person who sees such an announcement will make of them.

Using someone else’s card is a serious crime

Let’s go back to Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, where a man found a lost backpack and is now facing theft charges. The 50-year-old decided to use a payment card. He used it eight times in a store, the terminal did not require entering a PIN.

The matter is serious, because contactless payment with someone else’s card is a crime of burglary. The perpetrator, by defeating electronic security, breaks into the electronic system and steals the money constituting the payment. The penalty for theft is up to 5 years in prison. On the other hand, the crime of burglary is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

What to do with a found payment card?

The police remind that a person who has lost documents or payment cards should block them immediately. It is very simple: each bank has developed quick procedures for blocking cards. This can be done via the hotline or in online banking. At the same time, the bank can also block the lost document, so there is no need to report this fact to the commune/city office.

In place of the blocked card, the bank immediately issues a new one and sends it to the customer. The blocked card does not affect the ability to pay with blik and use online banking, but if the ID card is blocked at the same time, the document must be updated after the new one is issued.

PESEL reservation and document reservation

From June 1, 2024, if a citizen reports the loss of an ID card, their PESEL number will be automatically blocked. However, this will not affect the issuance of a new ID card. The PESEL blocking will not be automatically withdrawn when we obtain a new ID card. This must be done in mObywatel or the municipal office.