A Krasnoyarsk man handed over a phone he found on the street to a pawnshop and received a suspended sentence

A resident of Krasnoyarsk was given a one and a half year suspended sentence for stealing a cell phone.

In April, the duty station of police department No. 12 of the Krasnoyarskoye Municipal Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia received a statement from a resident of the Pashenny microdistrict that she had lost a phone worth 15 thousand rubles. The woman explained that she went to the store and used her phone along the way, but when she returned, she did not find it in her pocket.

Criminal investigation officers identified the suspect. He turned out to be a resident of this microdistrict, born in 1960. The man told police that he saw the phone on the ground and decided to keep it. He took the SIM cards out of it and took it to a pawnshop for 2 thousand rubles, and spent the money he received on his own needs.

Investigators of Investigative Department No. 12 of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia “Krasnoyarskoye” opened a criminal case under Part 2 of Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Theft”. The Sverdlovsk District Court sentenced the man to 1 year and 6 months of suspended imprisonment.

The police reminded how a discovery differs from a theft. Often, citizens who find a lost item simply keep it for themselves, without realizing that they are committing an illegal act. Turning a find into a theft occurs when the finder takes actions that hide the item from the owner (for example, removing the SIM card from the phone, hiding it), instead of trying to find the owner. If someone did exactly that, but did not contact the police and did not look for the owner – this is already considered theft, since there is intent to steal.

A person who does not take measures to return what was found faces administrative or criminal liability.

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