NYT:

The New York Police Department has been going fishing. Not content to nab criminals when they break the law on their own, the department has been planting unattended bags in subway stations to see who might take them, at which point waiting officers pounce.

As NY1 News reported last week, 220 people were arrested last year in the sting, known as Operation Lucky Bag.

(Found on This Modern World, where he notes, as the article does, that people might be bringing the bags to the Lost and Found, or home to track down the owners.)

So when someone sees this bag and calls the police reporting a bomb threat, do they have to arrest themselves for placing an item without a permit that amounts to a terroristic threat? Or does that only count when its a lite-brite figure of a little guy giving the finger?

that's crap. how do we know that it wasn't thrown away and we're just picking up garbage.

Why would you pick up someone else's garbage? You never know what you'll find in someone else's "garbage".

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=one+man%27s+garbage+is+another+man%27s