Found a piece of Verizon equipment -- what to do?

[ilyaz]

While walking our dog, we recently found a 3M tester device like this one http://www.3m.com/intl/kr/network/pdf/965DSP.pdf in the bushes. Apparently, someone from Verizon dropped it and it might have been sitting there for some time since it has Bell Atlantic markings on it. If it hadn't, I would put it on eBay right away since it seems to be an expensive piece of equipment:

http://cgi.ebay.com/3M-Dynatel-965DSP-Cable-Tester-Loop-Analyzer-Case-Cable-/130519162879?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e638c5fff

But I am afraid I will be accused of selling stolen property.

Contacted Verizon but the people in Customer Service who I talked to had no idea what I was even talking about. Told me to call their repair dept. Then I got transferred from one place to another until I got to the point where I started from. I am a tired of wasting my time on the phone with them.

So I am trying to figure out what to do with this piece.
- I presume I can only sell it on eBay if I get some letter from Verizon saying that they don't need it, which is never going to happen.
- I can rip it apart and scrap what's valuable, but since in working condition it seems to be worth hundreds of $, this seems to be a bit wasteful
- I can spend another X hours on the phone with Verizon hoping to get some type of reward for returning it.

Any other suggestions?

[Hades12]

Did you call the if found number?

throw it in the electronics recycle bin at the dump. no reason to press your luck for the few dollors it will bring.

[hobo finds]

Put in a post office box. I am sure they could find someone at a Verison to take it.

[ilyaz]

Did you call the if found number?

throw it in the electronics recycle bin at the dump. no reason to press your luck for the few dollors it will bring.

Yes, I did. The number now belongs to someone else.

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

Next time you see one of those Verizon vans parked somewhere with thew guys asleep inside....just wake them up and give it to them. Do the right thing! Wake them up!

[CrazyTom]

Next time you see one of those Verizon vans parked somewhere with thew guys asleep inside....just wake them up and give it to them. Do the right thing! Wake them up!

Now that's funny!

[silversaddle1]

If you make an honest effort to return the unit and get no interest from Verizon, then I say it's yours to keep. Just note times and dates and name of people you contacted, they will never follow up on it.

[blackrabbit]

If the found number does not even work I'd say it is yours. You called and tried. It says Bell Atlantic, not Verizon. I am pretty sure Bell Atlantic does not exist anymore.

[Robarons]

Look at it this way if that piece of equipment was of any importance they would customers going nuts (no calls! my texts arent working! I dont have long distance! cant call 911!no DSL!) and would have someone out there promptly ready to fix it and might be able to correlate the missing equipment with where the outage was and pick it up.

Secondly if its that old it maybe obsolete anyways- yeah not always true but more evidence of backing it up.

[hobo finds]

Well what did you do with it?