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What Should I Do?


runner_one

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Here’s one for all you arm-chair lawyers out there.

A few months ago while caching I found a roll of 35mm film laying in the woods a few yards from the cache. The area around the cache is high traffic enough that it could have been dropped by anyone, not just a cacher. I picked up the roll with the intentions of having it devolved and posting a few of the resulting photos around the web in the hopes that the owner can be found. But then a horrible thought crossed my mind what if the film was filled with child porn, or some other illegal acts? :mad: If the film does contain illegal activity and the film lab called the police I could find my door kicked in by the middle of the night and tossed into jail with a lot of explaining to do. ;) And the many wrongful conviction horror stories I have heard over the years leaves me a little gun-shy. As such the undeveloped roll of film is still in my car. Does anyone out there have any thoughts on this? How would you handle it? Should I get it developed or should I just toss it and forget it? Discussion?

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Here’s one for all you arm-chair lawyers out there.

A few months ago while caching I found a roll of 35mm film laying in the woods a few yards from the cache. The area around the cache is high traffic enough that it could have been dropped by anyone, not just a cacher. I picked up the roll with the intentions of having it devolved and posting a few of the resulting photos around the web in the hopes that the owner can be found. But then a horrible thought crossed my mind what if the film was filled with child porn, or some other illegal acts? :mad: If the film does contain illegal activity and the film lab called the police I could find my door kicked in by the middle of the night and tossed into jail with a lot of explaining to do. ;) And the many wrongful conviction horror stories I have heard over the years leaves me a little gun-shy. As such the undeveloped roll of film is still in my car. Does anyone out there have any thoughts on this? How would you handle it? Should I get it developed or should I just toss it and forget it? Discussion?

 

I think I'd just put it in the nearest trash can and call it a day.

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Or, go to the police and explain where/when you found it and your concerns. They may just blow it off but then you've at least made that effort. It's a real shame that we've gotten to this level of paranoia these days but you can't be too careful.

 

Then again, if it is porn, maybe there will be enough evidence to catch some bad guy and save a kid or two. Odds are against it though.

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Here’s one for all you arm-chair lawyers out there.

A few months ago while caching I found a roll of 35mm film laying in the woods a few yards from the cache. The area around the cache is high traffic enough that it could have been dropped by anyone, not just a cacher.

 

Should I get it developed or should I just toss it and forget it? Discussion?

 

I understand your caution... earlier this year I found a high end digital camera in the bottom of a bootprint in the deep snow... Took it home, cleaned it up, charged it up (after checking what the specs were online), But I never once looked at the pictures on it... I believe in some privacy...

 

This was found near a party spot, so I simply asked around local 'party goers' in the younger set...

At the same time, I had turned it in to the local RCMP detachment along with my notes on the find...

Only took one day to ID the owner for the LEOs and the camera was returned to the correct owner...

No one had to look at anything... at least I didn't...

 

My suggestion would be to START by posting a note on the cache page where you found it to see if a fellow cacher or friend had lost it... That would have been better at the time of the find however, but lots of people review their found caches from time to time... if just to see who else did it too... but if I thought I had lost something that day, I'd keep watching if it were me...

 

You could like someone said... give it to the copshop and let them decide... they may already have a 'wanted' poster on it... don't forget to state the time/ date of the find...

 

Good luck... Doug 7rxc

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If the film does contain illegal activity and the film lab called the police I could find my door kicked in by the middle of the night and tossed into jail with a lot of explaining to do.

 

Come now, that certainly wouldn't happen.

 

They'd be waiting for you to pick up your developed pictures. ;)

 

In all seriousness, Consider a "found" poster, or turn it in to a lost and found if there's a store nearby or something. But definitely don't develop it.

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I don't think I'd do any more than just toss it. Not for fear of being busted for something I didn't do but because having been laying in the open on the ground for an indeterminate amount of time it is unlikely to be any good. Even if it was salvageable the pictures were taken by someone else. Not likely to be anything on there I'd even want to see. It may be family to you but it is just a bunch of odd looking strangers to me, drooling brats and all.

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If you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to worry about.

 

I would have it developed just like the time I found a camera laying in the middle of the road.

The likelyhood of stumbling onto a roll of film that has "bad" pictures on it is remote. The chance that you were lucky enough to stumble upon one with some pictures of people having a nice day are a little better.

 

If you are worried, think of it this way. If the pictures are "incriminating" then you could have proof that could help solve a murder or other serious crime. Holding back on that evidence is something I wouldn't want on my conscience.

 

As a final possibility, turn it over to the police dept with all the facts that you have. Let them develop the film. That way if it contains a crime, they will conclude that it wasn't likely you that committed the crime. Sure, you would still be questioned but the guilt won't look like it belongs to you.

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Here’s one for all you arm-chair lawyers out there.

A few months ago while caching I found a roll of 35mm film laying in the woods a few yards from the cache. The area around the cache is high traffic enough that it could have been dropped by anyone, not just a cacher. I picked up the roll with the intentions of having it devolved and posting a few of the resulting photos around the web in the hopes that the owner can be found. But then a horrible thought crossed my mind what if the film was filled with child porn, or some other illegal acts? :mad: If the film does contain illegal activity and the film lab called the police I could find my door kicked in by the middle of the night and tossed into jail with a lot of explaining to do. ;) And the many wrongful conviction horror stories I have heard over the years leaves me a little gun-shy. As such the undeveloped roll of film is still in my car. Does anyone out there have any thoughts on this? How would you handle it? Should I get it developed or should I just toss it and forget it? Discussion?

 

You have nothing to worry about. Anyone taking pictures they don't want the authorities to see are using digital cameras, not film. Go ahead and and have it "devolved", whatever that is.

 

devo90683719082281.jpg

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I think the odds are in your favor. Get them developed if you want to. Maybe discuss it with whoever will be running the machine that day- but they may not develop it if you tell them it's not your film (policy in some places).

 

In a semi-related story...

 

Some musician friends of mine were putting together a CD. The name of the band was "Cement Shoes" and the name of the CD was "Sink or Swim". One of the guys had taken some black and white pictures (before digital) of a film noir-ish desk with all the accouterments of a private eye spread across it (magnifying glass, ashtray with smoking cigarette, snub-nose revolver, notepad and pencil, etc). On the center of the desk was a piece of paper with the letters cut out from a magazine, "ransom note" style, with the words "cement shoes sink or swim".

 

Guy drops off the pics to be developed and thinks nothing of it. Picks them up the next day, no problems. Then he gets a call from a detective at the police station. The cop has all sorts of questions, who was the note for, what exactly did he mean by "sink or swim", did he have a permit for the revolver, etc. He would not buy the story that it was album cover art at all. The cop asks him to come down to the station to talk about it. My friend politely told him that he had already given him every possible detail about the album art and that if he wanted to see him in the station that he would have to get him and take him there- have a good evening *click*.

 

He never heard from him again.

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Then he gets a call from a detective at the police station.

Does your friend know for sure it is from the police station? I'd suspect (because of the lack of follow-up) that it is the photo developing place guy / guys playing a prank on him.

 

As for the photos, I'd get them developed, just for the sheer curiosity of who'd lose a roll of film. And I like sioneva's explanation best.

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I have seen more than 1 case of people being arrested for the content of photos they had developed. The most recent being the parents that had their very young children taken away because they took pics of them playing in the bath tub. Yes, they were investigated for child pornography. They eventually got the kids back, but they had to hire a lawyer, deal with child protective services, etc.

 

Granted, if something is spotted and the authorities are called, you can say you just found the film, but I'd be willing to bet you would still be charged and you would still have to get yourself an attorney to defend you in court. Who needs all that?

 

The idea of turning it in to local authorities sounds like a good option. Maybe the cache note as well. But there's no way on this earth I would have the film developed myself. I don't need that kind of potential trouble.

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Wasn't there a thing on nightline a while ago about people at photo labs couldn't turn that kind of stuff over because of privacy? I remember seeing it somewhere and they showed pics of kids sitting in piles of drugs and stuff like that, but there was nothing they could do about it.

 

I would have probably posted a note on the cache page or if someone had found it just before me maybe send them a e-mail.

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I have seen more than 1 case of people being arrested for the content of photos they had developed. The most recent being the parents that had their very young children taken away because they took pics of them playing in the bath tub. Yes, they were investigated for child pornography. They eventually got the kids back, but they had to hire a lawyer, deal with child protective services, etc.

Where did you see this? It sounds like the stuff of urban legend. In the words of Wikipedia, citation please.

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I think you are paranoid. Besides posting a note on the cache page I think that is it.

 

There's nothing paranoid about it. THIS is the recent case I referred to. Read what these people went through for pictures a great many parents take of their kids at some point.

 

Now what do you think would happen if a photo lab clerk reported you for pics on that roll you didn't know about. Then the cops investigate and they discover that you don't even know the folks on the pics. There are several ways that can go and not very many of them are good. Now I don't know about where you are but we have laws here against surreptitiously taking pics of strangers. That accusation alone can get you in a lot of hot water. I just won't put myself into those situations for minor things. There are some things worth going to the mat over. This ain't one of them.

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Then he gets a call from a detective at the police station.

Does your friend know for sure it is from the police station? I'd suspect (because of the lack of follow-up) that it is the photo developing place guy / guys playing a prank on him.

 

As for the photos, I'd get them developed, just for the sheer curiosity of who'd lose a roll of film. And I like sioneva's explanation best.

 

Just saw your question today- yes it was an actual detective. My friend had dealt with him in the past in regards to a case involving his (at the time) wife. Neither he nor his wife were under investigation for that case and the detective was "on their side" in that situation. Also- I knew the same detective from a a third (also unrelated) incident involving my 19-year-old self.

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Here’s one for all you arm-chair lawyers out there.

A few months ago while caching I found a roll of 35mm film laying in the woods a few yards from the cache. The area around the cache is high traffic enough that it could have been dropped by anyone, not just a cacher. I picked up the roll with the intentions of having it devolved and posting a few of the resulting photos around the web in the hopes that the owner can be found. But then a horrible thought crossed my mind what if the film was filled with child porn, or some other illegal acts? :) If the film does contain illegal activity and the film lab called the police I could find my door kicked in by the middle of the night and tossed into jail with a lot of explaining to do. :( And the many wrongful conviction horror stories I have heard over the years leaves me a little gun-shy. As such the undeveloped roll of film is still in my car. Does anyone out there have any thoughts on this? How would you handle it? Should I get it developed or should I just toss it and forget it? Discussion?

 

Well now, I recon the criminals are a bit more careful than that with their film.

 

In your shoes I'd develop it and see if I could figure out who owned it and get it back to them. If by chance it was full of photo's of some criminal activity, you could figure that the victum's deserve to have this evidence turned over to the police.

 

However my wife thinks along the lines of Semper and so the film that I found YEARS Ago, sits, undeveloped but non in the trash until the stalemate ends (and I can find that dang roll of film again).

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I have seen more than 1 case of people being arrested for the content of photos they had developed. The most recent being the parents that had their very young children taken away because they took pics of them playing in the bath tub. Yes, they were investigated for child pornography. They eventually got the kids back, but they had to hire a lawyer, deal with child protective services, etc.

Where did you see this? It sounds like the stuff of urban legend. In the words of Wikipedia, citation please.

 

No citation needed. It's standard opearting procedure. The flim devlopers are obligatd to report anything they see to the authorities. No doubt there is a penalty if they don't so they would tend to over report. The authorties would play it safe and act first and think later lest there be a greater harm from inanction. They would ignor that ripping perfectly good kids away from perfectly normla parents is harmful in itself because they are under other pressures. Thus agencies would take the kids and then investiage and in the fullnesss of time come to the conclusion that the nothing but kids frolicking naked like they like to do, isn't child porn after all but kids being kids and parents trying to capture the joy of the moment.

 

Quite frankly it's a case of the sysem working exactly as designed.

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