I dunno, I think it's generally quite useful to identify relations between similar concepts. Not always easy to find one that fits perfectly but usually it just needs a bit of a tweak.

Like in this case, the situation you describe is exactly what a garbage collected language does, the key is that they let you mark what memory is still in use with a reference. Similarly in this case, there should be an explicitly defined time with a rule that if police want to hold something longer, they need to actively justify why and what the expected timeline is for the return without the owner needing to take them to court over it. Not perfect, but neither is garbage collection, and to me sounds much improved from what we've got.

I’m still not sure if GC is the police (i.e. returning the money/memory at an arbitrary undefined point in the future) or me trying to take it back.

The topic at hand is pretty straightforward and easy to understand, not sure what’s the point of trying to explain it using significantly more complex concepts besides making it more confusing and harder to understand for no reason.. (I mean I find it hard to believe that any person who understands how GC works would find the analogy in anyway useful).

> Not always easy to find one that fits perfectly but usually it just needs a bit of a tweak.

On a very superficial level sure. But then that mechanism starts coming apart at the seems if you start talking about the details.