Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

Trending News

Promoted
florida20004
florida20004 asked in Politics & GovernmentLaw & Ethics · 1 decade ago

Hypo: Would You Return a Laptop Lost 5 Months Before?

Hypo: You share a house w/3 others. 2 move out at once leaving a backpack you think is theirs (they then say it is not). You open it and find mail, house keys, and a laptop belonging to a total stranger. Booting up the laptop a Gmail account pops up (so you could contact the owner). He has been w/out his laptop for 5 months and has surely replaced it by now. Your own laptop is on its last legs. What do you do?

Update:

Thanks for playing guys. It was a hypo, but it was also loosely based on a real situation (I had already made arrangements with the guy to return his computer before posting the question). It turns out that a drunken former roommate had accidentally dragged home the wrong backpack, and failed to ever detect the mistake. When I told the roommate's girlfriend about the laptop she suggested I keep it. I found that more than a little disturbing. Hence the posting of the question. I do have a similar model laptop (I used my cord to power up the mystery laptop), but mine isn't failing. It's in fine health. I just added that detail to make it more interesting.

5 Answers

Relevance
  • Nuff Sed
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    You have a legal obligation to protect it from theft and damage and to make a valid attempt to return it to its rightful owner. You say there was mail and house keys of a total stranger? Why not figure out if any of these things belongs to someone addressed on the mail? They may be very pleased to know that everything was mistakenly lost, not stolen.

  • Soccerdude123
    1 decade ago

    Returning it is the right choice and legally you need to if there's a gmail

  • Jan
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago

    I would return it without a thought. It doesn't belong to me. If I know who it belongs to and do not return it,I am a thief.

  • ?
    1 decade ago

    Return it! Just cause they were unsucessful to find it, it doesn't mean it shouldnt be returned. It might have important things on it.

  • How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    i would return it, if it's fancy i'm sure he will want to track it by it's IP address

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.