How to recover property the police are holding

It happens to more people than you would think: something is stolen from you, it turns up months later at a police station, and nobody tells you. Or the police seize property of yours during an intervention and you do not know how to ask for it back. This 1967 Act governs that limbo. It says three useful things: the police must hold the goods for at least a year at centres where the public may examine them; any person may claim, and the Superintendent is obliged to hand over if you present trustworthy proof you are the owner; and there is a cut-off, because after the year — or after five years if the item is held for an investigation with no charges — everything passes to General Services and is disposed of as surplus property.

Section 2 asks for no personal qualification: it says “any person may claim those goods.” What it does require is two things. First, “trustworthy proof establishing that the claimant is the legitimate owner of those goods”; the Act does not list which documents work, so we do not invent them. Second, and this is the one racing the clock, that the claim be made “before the goods have been transferred to the Administrator of General Services for disposal.” Outside the Act, per Section 1, are firearms and stolen, robbed or swindled property related to pending court cases or held because a crime is under investigation.

• Present trustworthy proof establishing that you are the legitimate owner of the goods.Verified against the official source
• Make the claim before the goods have been transferred to the Administrator of General Services for disposal.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: First: check whether your case is inside the Act

   Section 1 trims the scope at the door and it is worth knowing before you start. The Act covers “all movable property that comes into police hands as a result of their official functions,” but leaves three things out: “firearms, and property stolen, robbed or swindled that is related to pending court cases or that is held because a crime is under investigation.” If your property is evidence in a live case, this is not the route while that lasts. If it is an item that reached police hands and stayed there, it is.

2. 2

   Step 2: How long you have, and when it starts counting

   There are two different clocks here and confusing them is costly. The general one: the police hold goods “for a term of not less than one year from the date they come into possession of them,” and once that year passes, if they are not the object of an investigation into a criminal act, the Superintendent hands them to General Services. The special one: where it is stolen, robbed or swindled property held because a crime is under investigation, the term is “five (5) years from the date the Police seized” the property, “without charges having been filed against anyone and without the legitimate owners appearing.” And there is an exception that waits for no clock: goods “of a perishable nature or limited durability” go to General Services “as soon as the Police are satisfied that their owners cannot be located.”

3. 3

   Step 3: You can go and look: the centres are open to public examination

   It is the part of the Act almost nobody uses. Section 2 does not only say the police keep the goods: it says they keep them “at the centre or centres where they may be examined by the public.” It is not a warehouse closed by legal design; the Act itself contemplates people going to see whether theirs is there. The Act does not publish which those centres are or where they sit, and we do not invent addresses; what it does order is that they be published, and that is the next step.

4. 4

   Step 4: Where it is supposed to be announced

   The Act imposes two publications, both twice a year, and they are worth knowing because they are what makes your property findable. The first: “The Superintendent shall inform the public, once every six months, in two newspapers of general circulation on the Island, of the existence of the centre or centres where the movable property covered by this Act is deposited.” And it has teeth: General Services “shall not receive these goods for disposal unless the delivery is accompanied by the Superintendent’s certification stating the date and newspapers of the publication.” The second: the Superintendent, “in coordination with the mayor of each municipality where there is a deposit centre,” shall post at least once every six months “on the municipality’s edict board a general list of the movable property in police hands.” That is, the list should be at your municipality’s city hall.

5. 5

   Step 5: The claim, and what obliges the Superintendent

   The key sentence, in full, because it is the one you can quote: “Any person may claim those goods and it shall be the Superintendent’s obligation to deliver them, provided trustworthy proof is presented establishing that the claimant is the legitimate owner of those goods and that the claim is made before the goods have been transferred to the Administrator of General Services for disposal.” Note “it shall be the obligation”: with both conditions met, delivery is not discretionary. The Act does not say which documents constitute trustworthy proof, sets no form, gives the Superintendent no term to answer and creates no appeal if you are refused. That would be left to the Section 3 regulation, which we did not read.

6. 6

   Step 6: If it is a motor vehicle

   The Act carries a specific line that solves the practical problem of a car that spent years in custody: “In the case of motor vehicles the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works shall issue a new title free of liens and encumbrances.” That sentence sits in the part of Section 2 describing delivery to General Services once the terms have run, so its context is the disposal of the item, not your claim. We publish it as it stands and do not stretch it beyond what the text says.

7. 7

   Step 7: The penalty cuts both ways

   Section 4 punishes two behaviours with the same penalty, and the second is not widely known. The first: whoever “maliciously claims as their own, and is given, movable property of the kind mentioned in this Act that does not belong to them commits a misdemeanour,” punished with a fine “of not less than one hundred (100) dollars nor more than five hundred (500) dollars, or a term of imprisonment not exceeding six (6) months, or both penalties at the Court’s discretion.” The second: “Any citizen with access to, or employee of, the Police of Puerto Rico or of the Administration of General Services who without being lawfully authorised knowingly and maliciously hands movable property to another person who does not prove to be its legitimate owner” commits the same offence and the same penalty.

8. 8

   Step 8: A note on whom the text names

   Worth knowing if you compare versions. The Act, as enacted in 1967, authorised the Superintendent to deliver the goods to the Secretary of the Treasury; the OGP compilation carries the bracketed note “[Substituted by the Administrator of General Services],” and the compiled articles read Administrator of General Services throughout. We follow the compiled text and say where the substitution comes from. At the end of the page, OGP further points to General Order OG 600-637 of the Police of Puerto Rico, which would be the operating document; we did not read it and that is why this guide describes no internal procedure.

The claim goes to the Superintendent of Police, on whom the Act places the obligation to deliver. The goods are examined at the deposit centre or centres the Police themselves must announce twice a year in two newspapers of general circulation, and whose general list must appear at least every six months on the edict board of the municipality where a centre exists. Once transferred, the goods are disposed of by the Administrator of General Services under its surplus-property regulation. The Act publishes no address, telephone, hours, form or location of the centres, and we do not invent them.

• Waiting to be called: the Act requires publishing the centres and the list, not notifying you personally.
• Letting the year pass: once the term runs, the Superintendent hands the goods to General Services and your claim under this Act ends there.
• Believing the term is the same for everything: it is one year in general, but five years for stolen, robbed or swindled property held for an investigation with no charges.
• Assuming firearms are included: Section 1 expressly excludes them.
• Taking this route when your property is evidence in a pending trial or an open investigation: the Act leaves it out while that lasts.
• Not checking the municipality’s edict board: the Act orders a general list posted there at least every six months.
• Thinking delivery is discretionary: with both conditions met, the Act says “it shall be the Superintendent’s obligation to deliver them.”
• Claiming something that is not yours: Section 4 punishes it as a misdemeanour with a $100 to $500 fine or up to six months, or both.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Policía de Puerto Rico

  Policía de PR

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov