One who finds lost property under circumstances which give him knowledge of or means of inquiry as to the true owner, and who appropriates such property to his own use, or to the use of another person not entitled thereto, without first making reasonable and just efforts to find the owner and to restore the property to him, is guilty of theft.
Cal. Penal Code § 485
Larceny
Applied in 12 court decisions — leading case 4 Cal. 4th 929 - People v. Zapien (1993)
Most recently applied in People v. A.R. (In re A.R.) (June 2018)
Amended by Stats. 1927, Ch. 619.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.