"Even the wisest can be fooled"

Property temporarily left unattended by its owner
is considered to be in their possession, and its appropriation by another person
is classified as theft.

Recently, the Beshenkovichi District Court has seen an increase in criminal cases involving the prosecution of citizens for stealing unattended property.

For instance, a resident of Beshenkovichi District, Mr. Ch., while in the "Myasnaya Lavka" store located on Uritskogo Street in Beshenkovichi, found a Prestigio touchscreen mobile phone on a table. He could have simply left the store, leaving the phone where it was. He could have alerted the store staff to the phone left on the table. These are two reasonable ways to resolve the situation. The phone was not lost by its owner; it was not on the street or on the floor of the store under the counter, but rather on a table. It could have been left by a customer or a store employee. However, neither of these options suited Mr. Ch. The phone ended up in Mr. Ch.'s bag, and he left the store with it.

The reason for initiating the criminal case was a phone call to the duty unit of the Beshenkovichi District Department of Internal Affairs from the victim, Ms. O., who requested assistance in locating her missing mobile phone. Ms. O.'s mobile phone had not left her possession, as she knew its exact location and had no reason to consider the phone lost. Immediate response measures were taken, with an operational group dispatched to the scene. Through operational measures, the mobile phone thief was tracked down.

After stealing the phone, Mr. Ch. disposed of it at his discretion. Upon acquiring the phone, he immediately began trying his SIM cards in it. He saw that the "Odnoklassniki" website was open on the phone and identified the phone's owner. He looked at her photos, though he was not acquainted with her. Calls came to the phone, but he did not answer them, then he hung up, after which the phone became unavailable, as confirmed by witnesses. Subsequently, Mr. Ch. did not discard the phone; instead, he wrapped it in foil, placed it in a polymer "document file" bag, and hid it in the bushes, from where he retrieved it during a verification of testimony at the scene. During a forensic dactyloscopic examination, a fingerprint left by Mr. Ch.'s right ring finger was found on the foil in which the phone was carefully wrapped.

Mr. Ch. took no measures to return the phone to its owner and did not attempt to hand it over to the staff of the "Myasnaya Lavka" store. All subsequent actions by Mr. Ch. indicate that he had no intention of returning the phone.