Found objects - what to do with them?

[MartyGwynne]

Hello.
I have found many an item when out on the track but have recently come across a rather large expensive item (see lost&found for sale section).
What is the normal accepted way of trying to locate the owner.
On some very small highly replaceable or consumable items I will have no problems in keeping them.
Larger more expensive items?
Report it to the police and hand it in (likely never to see it again)?
Post it on forums such as this?
What do you do?
Marty.

[GPSGuided]

Any which way you like. But police is certainly one commonly accepted channel, or the park ranger's office, pending where you found them. I understand that with the police, if it's not claimed for a certain period of time and the item is not associated with crimes, then you can take ownership. No problem using the forum to direct those to the police for claims.

[Strider]

Report it over to the police. The person who was paddling it might also be missing...

[perfectlydark]

Yeah largish value id probably hand to police, med value maybe a post here, low value probably keep or maybe post

[MartyGwynne]

Yes sorry I should have said the police have been notified. I don't think the owner is still missing I seem to recall someone loosing a raft or something and required rescuing a year or so back. The raft has been in the water for some tie now I suspect.
I also noticed the raft a week ago washed up against the bank when I waked along a track nearby and thought I could have a look at it and maybe even remove the rubbish from the outdoors if it was such. I was quite surprised to find it to be a raft which was in near serviceable condition.
I thought I would ask here and see what other people do or think.
Thanks.

[neilmny]

If you hand it to the police they will record you doing so and after a period of time (3 months?)
it will become your property if it is not claimed. It will not just disappear. I have personal experience with this.

[north-north-west]

Well, if you give it to the police, they are supposed to fill in all sorts of official forms (I've had experience with this), so a 'disappearance' would take a fair bit of fraud and forging on their part to arrange.
The SatPhone I found on the Larapinta I carried until Ormiston,and handed it to the Ranger there. Well, actually to the lady at the kiosk, who was married to one of the Rangers, but I'd have had to hang around for ages to do it in person. Could have kept it and given it to the cops in Alice but, frankly, I was sick of carrying the damn thing.
How can anyone be so careless as to lose a SatPhone out there and not notice until they were too far away to bother returning for it? Belt clip, keyring and neck strap, and it was still dropped . . .

[icefest]

Losing a sat phone... wow, it's almost as bad as losing your PLB.

[peter-robinson]

On one section of the OLT we found a camera, then a PLB, then a small first aid kit. We later met a couple of guys at a waterfall and asked. Things had been working their way up and out of an open pocket on the back of one guy's pack.
Or maybe he'd just run out of breadcrumbs to leave a trail