Another odd-ball "what would you do" question

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

This is a scenario which really occurred but it was a few years ago, and I don't know what the final outcome was.

Friends of my teenage kid were playing near a road bridge over a shallow body of water in a rural but highly traveled area. With a bare foot one of them felt something hard in the mud. He brought the object up and it was a laptop!

My kid having the reputation of a computer geek, they brought it to him to see if he could make it usable. My kid was able to get some info off of it, including a personal name and name of an international company headquartered in Atlanta. The surname is one of the most common in the world, but the first name narrowed it down a lot. A phone book was consulted and someone by that name was located in Atalanta. A message to the effect of "are you missing a laptop?" was left on an answering machine. I forget if an email or a phone number was left for any response--probably an email addy.

I, meanwhile, was feeling a bit nervous about the situation. Seemed to me the laptop probably landed in the river or lake or whatever on purpose. I imagined some sort of criminal evidence being disposed of, then my son contacting--- who? A criminal? A person the laptop was stolen from? Someone came all the way from Atlanta to southern Missouri to toss a laptop? What might be so motivating?

No response ever came from Atalanta and we did not press it. I think son got the laptop into somewhat working order and gave it back to the young man who had found it.

I wonder if we should have given it to police here, or maybe where it was found? Should we have advised the young man who found it to make a police report?

What would you have done at any point in the story?

[Broken Arrow]

Well, that sure is very nice of your son!

But yes, I would have simply handed it over to the police. That way, even if it something nefarious, well, then it's already in the right hands.

[mom-from-missouri]

I probably would of done the same he did, but also turned it into the police. When I worked for the phone company, our techs were dispatched by laptops and often we got phone calls at the center from people who found them. The techs were forever driving off with them on their bumper, or hood of the truck--many techs were contractors from out of state. One told me he usually went thru one a year as he lost them.

[ScrimpAndSave]

I'd keep it.