I'm not really sure, so I'll give 2 scenarios: #1) Coinstar machines are deliberately designed to capture occasional odd items in the interior. THIS MEANS THOSE ITEMS ARE STOLEN. #2) Coinstar machines are designed with interior "lint trays" to capture trash only(which is inevitable), but inadvertently capture items of value as well. THIS WOULD BE A MACHINE ERROR LOSS SITUATION. I like to believe it's #2. Either way, the customer should have the right to retrieve their lost or stolen items. Most customers don't. They accept the outcome and walk away. NOW WHO HAS THE RIGHTS TO THESE ITEMS? A coin on the floor is abandoned, so anyone can have it, right? What about the gold, silver, and coinage littering the inside of the machine's cabinet? Seems to me, any customer who complains about a jammed machine or missing items would have the right to all of the loose change and interior-captured items inside.(Their items, plus all the rest, because who-knows-what-belongs-to-who) No complaining customers? Then what? Store employee? Coinstar attendant? The store? City? State? Federal Government? Tom-in-CA? You tell me.
Great questions.
I also want to believe it's situation #2. But it still doesn't absolve Coinstar of their wrongful behavior. Even with some fine print somewhere, knowing almost no one would ready it means Coinstar is being reckless with their policy.
And yes, a customer should have the right to retrieve their property from any return/trash/lint/coin tray. The fact that they don't is really troubling. I can't think of a single legitimate reason why Coinstar would have a trash/return/link tray that the customer not only doesn't know about, but cannot physically access. This is especially notable because they have an easily accessible coin return tray.
I'm no criminal law attorney, but a stolen item will always belong to the legal owner, even if it passes hands of various "owners," right? And I can't imagine any statute of repose or limitation existing that tells the rightful owner of property that their legal right to an item no longer exists when they cannot reasonably know that something has been stolen from them. This isn't some case of adverse possession where a landowner doesn't learn about someone trespassing because they're an absentee landowner or notices the encroachment, but decides to ignore it.
Therefore, assuming Coinstar is engaging in theft, only the rightful owner has a right to the property. But practically speaking, it's been abandoned. Fine. But in that case, when it comes to deciding who now owns the stolen property, it's certainly not Coinstar.
I think the answer to this overarching question as both a practical and legal answer.
Assuming Coinstar is engaged in theft, the legal owner is the original owner. But the practical owner is the person who actually takes possession of the "lost" item in the hidden reject tray.
Next time I'm out, I'll take a close look at a Coinstar machine. Perhaps there is some writing on the machine that's easily legible and states something along the lines of:
"We are not responsible for any items placed into this machine that are not recognized as a valid US coin. However, if you believe one of your coins was mistakenly rejected, or that you had a non-coin item that accidentally made its way into the machine, and your item was not returned into the return slot, please contact a store employee who will open the Coinstar machine and grant you access to your lost item."
If such language exists, I still believe the original owner is the legal owner of the items in the locked/hidden tray. However, the reality is that anyone can claim to lose something and then get access to it and take anything they want (as you already indicated). There's the law and there's what people do...
That's hilarious!
