Property is not abandoned just because the owner has stopped looking for it. David Ormerod and Karl Laird in Smith and Hogan’s Criminal Law p938 note that a husband who has lost his wedding ring and has long since given up looking for it, will not have abandoned it. In Hibbert McKiernan [1948] 1 A;; ER 860 it was held that lost golf balls had not been abandoned by their owners. However, this does not mean that property cannot be abandoned. It will depend on whether the owner wants the property himself or to go to another party, or whether he does not mind what happens to it.