I've seen post on here about how do you legally go about acquiring something you find in an location or how do you legally go about exploring a location. A lot of cities and towns have something called a GIS map these are very handy for finding everything from where violations and crimes have occurred to property ownership information. If it's not listed on the map you can always go to the city or town hall and ask for the information about the property this usually includes an address for the owner.

GIS maps are pretty slick. In my county there is a ton of government land that has cool houses and such they bought years ago. The GIS map lets you know who owns what so you don't start snooping around houses people are living in.

Nice, I've been looking for something exactly like this.

Literally just started poking around with these by county here in Wisconsin. They really are very cool! Thanks for mentioning them! Another great find through the forums of UER.....

I've just recently started poking around Medusa, the Maryland Historical Trust's database of architectural and archaeological sites. It basically maps every site the MHT has ever generated any documentation on, including national and state historic sites, as well as sites which were nominated for protected status but not approved. It just provides loads of information on what must be tens of thousands of properties across the state, many of which you wouldn't think would have publicly available records and surveys associated with them. It's a great resource that anyone in the region should really consider poking around for a while.

https://mht.maryland.gov/secure/Medusa/

Now for how to get something you want. Contacting the owner and saying "hey I was trespassing in your building and saw something cool can I have it?" Probely won't go over very well. My suggestion would be to photograph the item and put it up on a junk photo hoist account. Then contact the owner saying you found the picture on the internet and after contacting the photographer learned where it was taken looked the property up and got the information. Therefore the photo and yourself are not directly linked you have a possible reason how you knew that item was there that's did not involves trespassing.

I was going to try the "my dog got away while on a walk and I found this _____ on your property while chasing him" line.

Posted by bandi I was going to try the "my dog got away while on a walk and I found this _____ on your property while chasing him" line.

That might work for cars but if it's something deep inside the place, then probably not so much!

Depends if your "dog" can open doors or not!

Posted by Guccii GIS maps are pretty slick. In my county there is a ton of government land that has cool houses and such they bought years ago. The GIS map lets you know who owns what so you don't start snooping around houses people are living in.

In this regard, if they have three years of unpaid taxes, it's a good indication it's vacant.

Posted by bandi Depends if your "dog" can open doors or not!

Squirrel monkey... think that could become classified as an instrument of crime

Posted by blackhawk Squirrel monkey... think that could become classified as an instrument of crime

I feel like the dog should be charged with trespassing. After all, it was the “dog” that was opening doors and exploring the property. You were just the poor owner trying to get him back, right?

I am glad i caught this thread! If the property has no information does that mean its unowned? or owned by the gov.?

It's likely owned by the government or a bank. As far as I know, there's not really such thing as a 100% abandoned property in the US.

Posted by YotaMan20 It's likely owned by the government or a bank. As far as I know, there's not really such thing as a 100% abandoned property in the US.

This is right, at least at some point it wont be abandoned in a legal sense for very long anyway.

Unclaimed i.e. abandoned property usually falls into a process involving forfeiture, sometimes a bank or a county or the state will in effect seize or place a lien against a property if it has some value or they have some interest in it and they typically are required to announce its sale by newspaper ads or other public notices before it can be disposed of to recover tax or debt that may be owed against it.

Most interesting example I have encountered several times while researching places I explored is the use of eminent domain, an entire neighborhood where Jerry Jones new football stadium was to be built was cleared out by the court through eminent domain proceedings, " you WILL sell it to us, one way or another youre going to be moving out! "

Where could I find a reliable GIS map?

Just type in the county or city of your location. Some gis sites can be confusing but just try to find a map or owner database.