Q. I live on the top floor of a 3-floor apartment building. I found a common small bouncy ball on my porch without any identifying marks other than the color. In the local children's store I can find dozens like it.
When the youngest child of my downstairs neighbor used to be little, we used to find many objects of his on our porch that he used to throw there. I asked my downstairs neighbor if it belonged to any of their grandkids (thinking that this throwing custom might have been passed down to the next generation) but was assured that it did not come from them.
Although it definitely came from someone else, do I have to continue to inquire from my other neighbors if it belongs to them or can I dispose of it as I see fit?
A. There are a number of sfeikos or doubtful conditions involved in deciding the correct way to deal with the found ball.
It is possible that the ball belongs to an adult, then regardless of whether the owner is Jewish or no, since the ball does not posses an identifying mark or siman, it does not have to be returned, as the owner will lose all hope of it being given back to him (since he cannot prove his ownership) and this state of "yiush" (or giving up) acquires the found object for the finder.
If a minor lost it, then if the majority of the residents are Gentiles the same law applies. However, if it is likely that it belongs to a Jewish minor who does not posses the capacity for "yiush" (Shulchan Aruch C. M. 260: 6), Nesivos Hamishpot (ibid. 11) rules that an unidentifiable belonging to a child must be returned, if and when witnesses appear to prove it is his. Some Poiskim disagree (see Divros Moishe C. M. 21: 3, Hakatan Vechilchosov 67: 6).
There may be another mitigating factor for not being obliged on safekeeping the ball forever. It considers the fact that ones property does not acquire objects against ones will. Since you cannot comply with the mitzvah of returning the object, as it does not have a "siman", you may have never wanted to acquire that object in the first place, and therefore you are not liable for its return.
Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit"a suggest to simply leave the ball by the curb.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit"a
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