Anyone lose a box of baseball cards????
 

Posted By: <b>Neal</b><p>Baseball cards found in foul territory<br />Tuesday, October 16, 2007<br /><br />By Jonathan D. Silver, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<br /><br />It was a short hop from pit stop to shortstop.<br /><br />A man who paused for a break by the side of a Washington County road stumbled onto a box of baseball cards, some going back 40 years.<br /><br />The man contacted state police. Trooper Frank Lewis found hundreds more baseball cards in protective sleeves at the bottom of a nearby embankment.<br /><br />That was Thursday evening. So far, Trooper Lewis has struck out on turning up the rightful owner. He balked at revealing too much in order to shield key information from false claimants.<br /><br />"They certainly are not trash," Trooper Lewis said yesterday.<br /><br />The discovery was made along southbound state Route 18 in Morris. Trooper Lewis thinks the cards -- there are about 1,500 of them, dating from the 1960s to the 1990s -- were dumped there either after a theft or during a "lover's quarrel."<br /><br />No police departments in a 50-mile radius have reported burglaries involving baseball card collections, Trooper Lewis said.<br /><br />Currently the cards are under lock and key in the Washington barracks' property room.<br /><br />"I can't even get to 'em," Trooper Lewis said.<br /><br />If the owner can provide enough bona fides -- the types of cards found, how they were stored -- the collection will be released. If, however, they go unclaimed over the next few months, the cards will be destroyed, as per state police policy, Trooper Lewis said.<br /><br />First published on October 16, 2007 at 12:00 am

Anyone lose a box of baseball cards????
 

Posted By: <b>Mark T</b><p>I can see why the 1990 cards were dumped.<br /><br /><br />Edited to say: Sounds like an ex-girlfriend or ex-wife getting back, she should have just listed them on Ebay like a few auction that say " ex-husbands cards must go"...I see that all the time.

Anyone lose a box of baseball cards????
 

Posted By: <b>Matt</b><p>destroyed? What kind of dumb policy is that? Wouldn't it make more sense for the police department to auction off unclaimed items and keep the proceeds? Perhaps a legal expert can weigh in here as to what would happen in the case that the items are auctioned off, and then 2 years later the rightful owner shows up. Does the state have the rights to repossess someones property if they leave it in a public location and don't claim it?

Anyone lose a box of baseball cards????
 

Posted By: <b>Sean BH</b><p>Mark, <br />Those ex girlfriend/wife card listings on eBay sometime have some pretty good scans if you know what I mean...<img src="/images/wink.gif" height=14 width=14><br /><br />sdbh

Anyone lose a box of baseball cards????
 

Posted By: <b>Neal</b><p>Definitely know what you mean! <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14>

Anyone lose a box of baseball cards????
 

Posted By: <b>JK</b><p>If someone leaves their property in a public place, the state has not repossessed it. The property in your example has been abandoned and if not claimed, becomes the property of the state.

Anyone lose a box of baseball cards????
 

Posted By: <b>Matt</b><p>JK - thanks for the legal background. If so, why would the state rather destroy i then sell it?

Anyone lose a box of baseball cards????
 

Posted By: <b>Tom Boblitt</b><p>that's idiotic........how bout dropping off the cards at a children's hospital or something. Sounds like government at work if you ask me.......<br />

Anyone lose a box of baseball cards????
 

Posted By: <b>Denny Walsh</b><p>The Policeman is wrong...Cards will go to the Guy who found them! Then he can burn'em if he wants to....<br /><br />Life's Grand,<br />Denny Walsh