Let me understand your reasoning.
My grandfather steals something from your grandfather. I show it to you, and you say, hey, that's stolen property which belongs to your grandfather. And your statement is a true statement.
I say, give it back or I'll sue you.
And I'm correct and should win that suit?
For some crimes there is a statute of Limitations.
Which means ater so many years, most cases 7, a person cannot be prosecuted.
The men that robbed Brinks in Boston years ago stole millions of dollars.
They buried the money and waited the 7 years, but just before the time was up one of them freaked out and turned them in and showed the police where the money was hidden.
He turned them in becasue he freaked out and thought they were not going to give him his cut.
Had he not turned them in they could have spent the money anywhere they wanted and even wrote books about the crime.
So it isn't "my reasoning" it is a matter of law.
Where the statute of limitations comes in is like this: when someone possesses your property wrongfully, you have a right of action to correct that. If it is land, you have an action in trespass, and your SOL is usually about 10 years. If a neighbor pours some cement on your front yard, and parks his car there, and you don't file suit to get him out within 10 years, your neighbor now owns the land.
If the property is personal property, the action is for "conversion". Your SOL is usually something like 3 or 4 years BUT, and this is a big BUT you have to know who has converted your property before you can file your action. If you don't know, then you can't exactly sue the entire world.
So, the end result is, if someone steals your property, and you don't know who it was, it is still your property until you find out who it was, or find who has it now. When you find it, you still have a few years to file suit to get it back.