In retrospect, you're right : I have a suspicion that the police are not going to go doing "my errand request". They would probably have just said "Give it to us" (That's the law after all). And they're not obligated to act as a go-between. For example: How do they know that I'm not creating a ruse to meet a car-owner ? And let's be honest: They have bigger fish to fry these days.
In fact, one time I ran a CL "found" ad, for some freshly lost prescription glasses I found on the beach . Figuring the owner would want them back. And the next morning, I saw an incoming reply email from CL. Turns out that it was the police in this small town !
They were asking if mine matched a certain description . And it turns out these did not match. Apparently they'd had someone come in to the dept., the day before, making a "lost" report . In case anyone turned in found glasses. So the police in turn, had gone to CL, and seen my "found" ad .
After I told them : "Nope, sorry , these aren't a match", I got a rather ...... uh .. "terse" email reply back. The lady cop said something like : "Gee, I suppose you find interesting valuables with your metal detector on the beach here. So,
in the future, in order to be in compliance with the laws, please bring them to the police station. If the station is closed after hours, please insert any items of value through the night slot on the door"
I thought : "What the heck *laws* is she talking about ?
". That's when I looked up CA L&F laws, and saw what she was talking about
