Taipei city councilors yesterday raised questions about Taipei Rapid Transit Corp’s (TRTC) handling of lost goods, suggesting that the company review and change its methods.
The company takes custody of lost funds or items and informs the owner without turning it over to the police, Taipei City Councilor Hung Chien-yi (洪健益) said.
If the person who lost the goods or money on the MRT does not claim it, the funds would become part of TRTC income, Hung said.
Photo courtesy of Taipei Rapid Transportation Corp
The estimated value of lost-and-found goods and cash that were not retrieved at the TRTC per year is about NT$7 million (US$212,656), he added.
TRTC is not part of the judiciary and its methods of handling lost money could easily lead to controversy, Hung said, citing an instance during which a passenger left a backpack containing NT$1.5 million in cash on the MRT and retrieved it from the lost and found.
Taipei City Councilor Hsu Hung-ting (徐弘庭) also asked why TRTC did not put the lost-and-found goods up for auction, which is what Taiwan Railway Corp and Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp does.
TRTC said the Mass Rapid Transit Act (大眾捷運法) refers to the Civil Code, particularly articles 804 and 807, for the disposition of all lost and found goods on MRTs.
Article 804 of the Civil Code says if the person entitled to the lost property does not identify and claim it within a reasonable time after notification, in accordance with the second paragraph of the preceding article, the person who picks up the lost property must deposit the property with the police or the local autonomous institution.
Meanwhile, Article 807 reads: “If the person who picks up the lost property does not claim such property within three months from the date of informing or advertisement in accordance with the preceding paragraph, the lost property or the net proceeds of its sale belongs to the local autonomous institution.”
Given the large amount of lost items, the Taipei City Government commissioned TRTC to handle all such affairs, per the Administrative Procedure Act (行政程序法), the TRTC said.
TRTC also said it registered 28,000 lost-and-found items, including cash, in 2023, and that it had sent out 1,600 text messages to the owners, 1,000 of whom had come in to retrieve their lost goods.
It had attempted to auction off the more valuable unclaimed lost goods in its inventory in 2014, but this increased expenses due to personnel costs and appraisal fees, TRTC added.
The additional work put into answering the public’s questions regarding the auctioned goods also affected the company’s daily affairs, so it decided to adhere to the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法) and put all items up as a procurement bid, instead of holding an auction, TRTC said.
The most significant amount of cash found on the MRT within the past three years was NT$1.94 million, it said, adding that the owner had been informed and had come to retrieve the money.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
RSS