sean and narcissus

i decided to send a letter to randy cohen, who writes the column “the ethicist” for the new york times magazine, in order to solve my ethical dilemma. i hope he replies, i love his column. here is the letter i wrote:

Dear Mr. Cohen,

Recently, my home was robbed. Thousands of dollars worth of things both replaceable and irreplaceable were stolen, as well as my car. A few days later, my car was recovered and the people allegedly responsible were arrested. Upon receiving my car, I discovered that it was filled with the possesions of one of the people in custody. I tried to give the things to the impound lot, but they wouldn’t take them and when I called the detective working on the case, she told me to do whatever I wanted with the things. Would I be acting correctly to give the items ( mostly clothing and other personal things) to a charity shop? Or do I have an ethical obligation to try to return them to their owner, even if they stole from me?

Thanks for your time,

xxxx