(A) The provisions of this chapter shall apply to any stolen money or other property recovered by the city police which shall not be claimed within six months after said recovery.
(B) Forthwith after the expiration of the six-month period, the Director of Public Safety shall report to the City Council listing the money or other property so recovered and held, and requesting authority from the City Council to turn any money over to the City Treasurer to be credited to the general fund and requesting authority from the City Council to sell at public sale any other property so recovered and held.
(C) The City Council shall act on the request of the Director of Public Safety within six months after the receipt of such request. In case authority is granted to the Director of Public Safety to turn any money so recovered and held over to the City Treasurer or to sell any other property so recovered and held, the Director of Public Safety shall publish a notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the city by insertions in three issues of the newspaper. The notice shall describe the money so recovered and held and also the other property so recovered and held, together with the time and place of public sale at which the other property may be purchased by the highest bidder. Up until the date of sale, the money or other property may be claimed at the office of the Director of Public Safety for the city, and if ownership is proved, such money or other property shall be turned over to the claimant, and the sale canceled insofar as such property is concerned.
(D) After the holding of any such sale, the money received from such sale, after deducting the cost of the conducting thereof, and any other money recovered and held included in the notice provided for in division (C) shall be turned over to the City Treasurer to be credited to the general fund of the city.
(E) Except as provided in division (F) hereof, no claim shall be valid to obtain any money or other property recovered by the city police, after notice and sale as provided in division (C) of this section, said property and money being considered as abandoned and belonging to the city.
(F) The owner of stolen property may prove his claim by proving the identity of the property and be reimbursed from the City Treasurer in an amount not to exceed the amount paid for such goods at the sale, if such proof is accepted by the City Council after the sale; provided, however, that such claim shall have been filed with the City Council not later than six months after such sale.
(`73 Code, 12.175, § 1.75)