[sandworm101]

Yes. The fact that property is unguarded doesn't render it free to any random person. You can legitimately safeguard something, such as moving it off the road, but once you open the box or take the box home, you are a thief. And if the box is sitting on railroad property, you are likely guilty of attempted theft as soon as you pick it up. Also trespassing.

[pi-e-sigma]

What you say is not true in the slightest. In a lot of the US jurisdictions you can keep what you found provided you report it to the authorities and nobody claims it in some time frame. In other cases you can take what you found if you found it on your land etc. Lots of various laws apply, depending where you live and what exactly you found. If it was likely to be intentionally left where you found it to be later picked up again, or if it was intentionally abandoned etc. You can even take legal ownership of land that you and the authorities know is not yours provided you use it long enough (adverse possession) and you think a random box left by the side of the road is somehow untouchable?

[solatic]

> nobody claims it in some time frame

You have some nerve to equivocate between an anonymous object bearing no clues as to its ownership and a box with an address label on it signifying exactly to whom the parcel belongs. How do you blame an owner who likely lives hundreds if not thousands of miles away for not contacting every police precinct along the shipping path instead of expecting someone who finds the parcel to simply return it to the shipping company so that they can finish the job?

[neilkk]

The package in transit belongs to Amazon not to the addressee.

[Mordisquitos]

A more generous quote of GP comment provides the answer:

> provided you report it to the authorities and nobody claims it in some time frame

One would expect that "report it to the authorities" covers that problem. The authorities will take care of either contacting the shipping company and letting them know, instructing you on how to do it yourself, or even take possession of the package to return it themselves.

[Chris2048]

In that case you'd maybe leave the parcel where it is?

[sandworm101]

Not for amazon boxes that fall off trucks.

[londons_explore]

Amazon isn't gonna go to the police station to claim their lost box... So actually, this would probably work to legally claim an amazon box.

[NoZebra120vClip]

How would that work?

If you find an object with no obvious owner, you either leave it where it lies, or you report it by turning it in somewhere. To the business where you found it, or the Lost & Found department of the transit authority, or the police if all else fails.

I don't see anyone calling up the police to say, "Hi, I found <item> and I'll keep it until someone comes over here to claim it!" because the only people coming over will be the police themselves.

Every place with a Lost & Found service, and the police, regularly liquidate the unclaimed property. You can find lists and auctions on your civic website if they're selling the stuff. They may also donate it to charity or destroy it.

The police or anyone else are not going to stick a tag on a box with your name and number so you can come to claim it after the grace period elapses. That's not how claiming stuff works.

[avar]

Yes, why wouldn't it work like that?

If a package falls off a truck in front of your house you can pick it up and inform the authorities, who'll in turn inform the owner.

If the police or owner care enough to pick it up they can have it, but presumably there's cases where they can't be bothered, then it becomes abandoned property and you can keep it.

Just because you find abandoned property you don't need to go out of your way to mail it to the owner, just inform them and they can come to you.

The "why not just leave it?" aspect of this is easily defended, if the package e.g. contains electronics they'd be damaged by exposure to the elements.

[dagw]

The police or anyone else are not going to stick a tag on a box with your name and number so you can come to claim it after the grace period elapses

This of course varies a lot by jurisdiction, but yes, in many places that is exactly what the police will do.

[lupusreal]

We shouldn't even be humoring the premise of boxes falling off trains without thieves deliberately breaking into the trains in the first place.

[pooper]

I don't think it is so clear cut.

One hypothetical scenario:

1. Thieves stop a train somehow, spill containers for distraction, run away with valuables.

2. Idiots see stuff lying on the ground and go pick it up causing chaos and confusion.

3. Police arrest some of the idiots. Win win. Thieves go away free and police can claim they arrested some people. This also pads their numbers. Politicians can pretend they were not asleep at the wheel with organized crime under their nose because look only 5% of arrests were organized crime. All we needed to do is arrest more homeless people.

[Chris2048]

Not sure if this is same in US, but where I am the railway tracks and a fair bit of land alongside it it the property of the railway and usually appropriately fenced and signposted. A dropped or fallen parcel is highly likely to be located on that land and thus not public.

I'd say an anonymous parcel on private land is the concern of the landowner, even with a right-of-way.

[sandworm101]

Amazon boxes are not anonymous. Even without a lable, it is clear to whome it belongs.