July 17, 2024 – In the original article (Inside Track Jan. 17, 2024), a notional child named Emma finds a small canvas bag containing hundred-year-old gold coins. The question was whether the law permitted Emma to keep the booty.

It turns out Emma has real-life counterparts.

On October 2, 2022, while conducting roadside highway cleanup community service hours for the River Falls National Honor Society, high school juniors Jackson Gulick and Peregrine Kotz found a plastic bag containing 303 U.S. silver dollars, each consisting of fine silver and minted in 2018 or 2019.

The boys took possession of the bag and informed their parents. The following day, Laura Gulick, Jackson’s mother, approached the River Falls police department. It turned out the boys had found the coins on county land – outside the municipal boundaries.

Laura then contacted the Pierce County Sheriff’s office about the matter, surrendered the coins, communicated to the deputy sheriff an interest in the property, and took back a signed property receipt.

Sheriff investigators theorized the coins were contraband from unlawful criminal activity and sent out multiple crime alerts to the surrounding areas. However, investigators were unable to establish evidence consistent with this theory.

Unclaimed

No one stepped forward to claim the property. Laura made several written requests for the return of the property. She contacted the county corporation counsel.

Pierce County, it turns out, does not have an ordinance in connection with lost property. Corporation counsel believed that Wis. Stat. §59.66 (unclaimed funds held by county offices) controlled the disposition of the property, but Laura’s procedural path for relief would require her to file a petition under Wis. Stat. §968.20 for return of property seized with or without a search warrant.

Not sure where to turn, Laura, through an online search, found my article. After gathering the facts and researching the matter, I suggested her remedy most likely would be a replevin action in small claims court.

Instead, Gulick chose to follow corporation counsel’s recommendation. She attempted to file a petition for return of property under Wis. Stat. § 968.20. The court instructed the clerk of court to decline the filing. Gulick then filed a replevin action in small claims court.

Corporation counsel filed a lengthy motion to dismiss. At the initial hearing on May 3, 2024 (Laura was accompanied by Jackson and Peregrine in coats and ties), the court mainly addressed corporation counsel.

The court expressed the view that the matter could have been avoided with “clear and up-front communication.” The court appeared displeased that corporation counsel had obtained an appraisal but had not provided it to Gulick.

The appraisal valued the coins at slightly over $10,000. Under Wis. Stat. § 799.01(1)(c), corporation counsel had pointed out, this value would have put the coins over the jurisdictional limit of $10,000 for replevin actions in small claims court.

The court agreed with corporation counsel that Gulick should have served the county board and the clerk of court; however, the judge declined to dismiss the case on that basis. Rather, the court allowed Gulick to correct the error and set the matter for mediation.

Mediation resulted in agreement on procedure. Gulick would again request a hearing under Wis. Stats. § 968.20 (corporation counsel was insistent on proceeding under this statute) for the court to make findings on the “elements of the action presented by the plaintiff including that the proper parties are presented in court and that the property at issue was abandoned and therefore the property of the plaintiffs, and that there was no evidence that the property is contraband under Wisconsin law.”

The court held a second hearing on May 23, 2024. Again, Jackson and Peregrine appeared with Laura wearing coats and ties. The court rejected the suggestion in the mediation agreement that Laura must make her claim under Wis. Stats. § 968.20.

The court held that Laura had correctly raised the claim as a replevin and could decide the matter on that basis.

The court concluded that there was no factual dispute in the case. The sheriff’s office initiated an investigation but was unable to find any information about the coins or who the owner might be. Further, no evidence existed that the coins were stolen and then discarded or lost.

The court determined:

• The coins were turned in with the understanding that they would be returned if the original owner could not be located. The sheriff’s office provided a property receipt to plaintiff for further claiming of the coins.

• The sheriff's office had been unable to determine any ownership interest or produce evidence that the coins were the product of a theft or other illegal activity.

• Laura was the owner of the coins turned into the sheriff’s office.

• The coins themselves were not illegal or dangerous and did not give rise to any other consideration that would prevent the return of the coins to Laura.

• The coins were not contraband.

The court ordered the return of the coins to Laura.

In hindsight, Laura possibly could have saved herself time and trouble by retaining possession of the coins and following the procedures set forth in Wis. Stat. Chapter 170 (strays and lost chattels). Before she filed suit, Laura suggested to the corporation counsel that if the sheriff’s office would return the coins to her, she would follow those procedures. Corporation counsel, careful and cautious, was concerned about this solution – in part because the lost property statute references the giving of written notice of the found property to law enforcement agencies of cities, villages, and towns, but not counties.

But all’s well that ends well. Jackson Gulick is enrolled in the University of Colorado Boulder on a four-year Army ROTC scholarship. Peregrine Kotz plans on studying politics at U.W. Madison.

Jackson Gulick and Peregrine Kotz, who found the U.S. silver dollars.