Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas

It depends. If you find a purse that contains nothing that would lead to identifying the owner, and you find it in a place that it is not likely to be found in the future by the owner - say in the parking lot of a closed business and it looks like it has been there for a while - then you are pretty safe. If, however, you can identify the owner because there is a wallet with a identification but instead of trying to find the owner or turning the purse over to the police you decide to sell the expensive diamond ring that you find inside, then you could possibly be charged with theft. You are appropriating the property without the permission of the owner.

Whether the offense is a misdemeanor or felony depends on the value of the purse & its contents.

Here is the relevant law on theft:

� 31.03. THEFT. (a) A person commits an offense if he unlawfully appropriates property with intent to deprive the owner of property.

(b) Appropriation of property is unlawful if:

(1) it is without the owner's effective consent;

(2) the property is stolen and the actor appropriates the property knowing it was stolen by another; or

(3) property in the custody of any law enforcement agency was explicitly represented by any law enforcement agent to the actor as being stolen and the actor appropriates the property believing it was stolen by another.

(c) For purposes of Subsection (b):

(1) evidence that the actor has previously participated in recent transactions other than, but similar to, that which the prosecution is based is admissible for the purpose of showing knowledge or intent and the issues of knowledge or intent

are raised by the actor's plea of not guilty;

(2) the testimony of an accomplice shall be corroborated by proof that tends to connect the actor to the crime, but the actor's knowledge or intent may be established by the uncorroborated testimony of the accomplice;