Finders Keepers?

The complaining witness dropped a roll of bank bills -- about two hundred dollars -- on a public street in Warren, Ohio, and walked away without noticing his loss. Roughly a month later the Defendant, a laborer working on that street, found the money and put it in his pocket. He said nothing to the men working beside him and made no effort to find the owner; instead he quickly spent part of it. The owner had in the meantime advertised the loss, though there was no proof the Defendant had seen any of the notices. The Prosecution charged the Defendant with larceny, arguing that when he picked the money up he had every reason to know it belonged to someone who could be found, yet he pocketed and concealed it meaning to keep it for himself. The Defense argued that money lying lost in the street belongs to whoever finds it, and that a person cannot steal what has already been lost by another.