Man’s story of being tracked down for taking receipt from trash sparks debate

• By Hsu Kuo-chen and Jake Chung

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Staff reporter, with staff writer

A man’s story about being tracked down and questioned by police after taking a discarded receipt from a trash can has sparked a heated debate on social media.

“These days, you cannot even pick up receipts from the trash,” the poster wrote on Threads last week.

Receipts are pictured in an undated photograph.

Photo: Clare Cheng, Taipei Times

He said he found the receipt in a trash can intended for discarded slips and coupons near a payment kiosk, but was surprised when he was contacted by police to give a statement after the original owner of the receipt filed a complaint alleging misappropriation.

He wrote that he was found through a review of surveillance footage and a license-plate match.

Commenters in the thread were divided on the matter, with some saying that the receipt’s original owner had relinquished ownership by throwing it away.

“If you cannot even pick something out of a trash can, it is probably safer to stay well away from anything you see lying around,” another commenter wrote.

Others said that the receipt being found in the trash can did not necessarily mean the owner intended to relinquish ownership of it.

Some commenters said that they have seen store clerks tear up receipts in front of customers to prevent disputes if someone else picked them up.

Another person wrote that as receipts could be used to claim winnings in the uniform invoice lottery, the issue could be complicated if it turned out to be a winning receipt.

Lawyer Lee Hsueh-yung (李學鏞) said that whether picking up a receipt constitutes misappropriation of lost property cannot be determined solely by whether it was “picked up” or “left in a trash can.”

It generally depends on whether the person intended to take the item for themselves, whether they actually took possession of it, and whether the item was lost property or an ownerless object that had been intentionally abandoned, he said.

If the original owner intentionally discarded the receipt, it could be considered ownerless property, meaning the person who picked it up could, in principle, take ownership of the item by taking possession of it, Lee said.

However, if the receipt had been dropped accidentally or the owner had mistakenly thrown away an item that still had value, its legal status could be different, he said.

If the person who picked it up did not subsequently redeem it for a prize or otherwise make use of its value, whether they had the intent to misappropriate it would still have to be determined based on the available evidence, Lee said.