[sabat]

The phone was sold. The finder made a profit from the phone he found, instead of turning it in to the police or bringing it to the owner.

Does California state law, or federal law, mandate that you have to attempt to return found items? That would be news to a lot of people.

[djcapelis]

As most articles on this have mentioned, California state law does indeed mandate exactly that:

* http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/cacode/PEN/3/1/13/5/s485

* http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/cacode/CIV/5/d3/4/6/4/1/s2080.1