What do you do with money over $5 you find in public?

caramel

caramel

Member
When I was young, I remember I was in a store in Texas when I saw $20 in cash on the floor. I told my aunt about it. She split it with me and gave me half. My mother probably didn't want me to have $20 which is probably why my aunt split it with me instead of giving it to me. That was a lot of money back then. I don't remember where it went.

The next time I remember finding money, I was with a boyfriend. It was $50 in cash on a well traveled sidewalk. He insisted that we take it to the police. I was incredulous. Seemed a little silly to me to be donating to the police, but oh well. It made him feel virtuous, I guess. Never saw that money again.

What do you do with money you find over $5 in public? Do you look for the owner? Spend it the second you found it? Take it to lost and found? Pocket it?
 

Small amounts I spend (when younger) or donate (after reaching an age of making a livable income). Larger amounts I turn into the police (only has happened twice).

Once a friend and I found a wallet with over a hundred dollars but no ID in it. We took it to the police, then we peppered them with phone calls every week asking if anybody had claimed it yet. Eventually the time period ran out for any owner to claim, then the police sent us a check for the amount of the cash.
 
The largest amount of loose money I have found was a twenty dollar bill on a staircase outside of a building, nobody was around so I stuck it in my pocket.

I have found wallets, check books and credit cards and once a purse, those I have turned in or returned directly to the owners if possible.
 
The most I've found was a $20 on the floor in a Walmart's video section... I stood there a while to see if anyone would come looking around the floor but they didn't. Figured if I'd hand it in, it would just end up in the cashier's pocket, so I didn't see much of an option.
 
If I find it outside... it's mine.
If I find it in a store, as I have before, I give it to the clerk in case someone comes back looking. What he does with it is on his conscious.
I think one time I picked up a bill on the floor near the checkout counter and it was planted. When I handed it to the clerk and told him it was on the floor, he smiled and seemed to be expecting it.
 
VisualBrian said:
If I find it outside... it's mine.
If I find it in a store, as I have before, I give it to the clerk in case someone comes back looking. What he does with it is on his conscious.
I think one time I picked up a bill on the floor near the checkout counter and it was planted. When I handed it to the clerk and told him it was on the floor, he smiled and seemed to be expecting it.
Click to expand...

In Ohio, I found lost money in store, the right thing may be to turn it in, but it is not required by law as the store has no legal claim to it. Mislaid property is quite different though.
 
Like @Knight , the most I've found was a hundred dollar bill. The one I found was in a grocery store next to a bin of Watermelons.
There wasn't anyone around. I picked up the $100 and pocketed it as I started walking all over the grocery store.

I saw an almost full shopping cart that had seemingly been abandoned, but nearby I also saw a worried looking woman and young teenage girl looking around on the floor of the grocery store.

I asked the woman if she had lost something. She said yes she had and I asked her what it was. She said, "A hundred".
Without another word, I pulled the hundred dollar bill from my pocket and handed it to her.
She accepted the money with wide eyes that looked as though they were about to cry.
The woman said her mother had given her the $100 and asked that she buy groceries.
It was all the money they had to eat on.
 
I found $5 dropped at our mall around Christmas time so I turned it in to security. I thought it could have been some kid that dropped it. If it had been outside I would have kept it but sometimes I hand change (sometimes a bill if they are female) to people that are asking for handouts when I stop at a red light.
 
I was going to the store a few years ago and as I turned the corner, there was a dollar bill in the grass. Had I gotten there a couple of seconds later, one of the ladies who was crossing the street probably would have gotten it. My son, who is a trucker, had a run that required him to stay overnight in a hotel. He found $100 stuck in the Bible that was in the drawer. 🤑 I think if one finds money (eg more than $5) in a public place, may as well keep it because everyone is going to lay claim to it. Exceptions might be if you see it right next to the person in front of you on line and there's a reasonable chance that he/she dropped it.
 
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When our washing machine was out of order, I went to a laundromat. There was a woman putting a load of wash into a dryer. Her back was turned to me, when I found a wet wad of money. I knew it was from her wash load, so, I asked it if was hers. She was so glad, as her son had a habit of leaving money in the pocket of his jeans. I suppose a fast-thinker could always make up a story, but I knew she was telling the truth.
 
Oh and other than the hundred dollar bill I found, I guess the next biggest money I've found was $60 in a bar one Saturday night.
Three $20's were folded up tightly and neatly into a small triangle ... like the way paper is folded into a triangle to play tabletop football.

There was no one looking around for the money. Heck it could have been lost in the bar Friday night or any other night for that matter.
The bar tender didn't know anything about any lost money. So I kept the $60 and drank liberally and free that night. Cheers
 
Well what about the most money I've ever lost ?? ... okay, almost lost ...

I was in the military and driving across country after receiving orders to transfer from Norfolk Virginia to Mare Island, Vallejo, California.
With me I had $2,800 cash.

Stopping for the night after driving all day, I stashed the $2,800 into the bottom of a Kleenex box that was in the hotel room.
Slept well, turned the key in next morning and got an early start to continue the cross country journey.

I'd made it all the way back onto the Interstate, set cruise and was headed West at a good pace, but something didn't "feel" right.
OH HECK ... WAIT A MINUTE !!! ... I'd left the hotel without reclaiming the $2,800 from the Kleenex box. Shoot !!!

Had to travel a ways to get to the next exit off the Interstate and head back to the hotel with little hope of retrieving the money.

After about a half hour later and pulling into the hotel parking lot, I noticed the room I'd stayed in had the door standing wide open.
There was a cleaning cart outside the room.
I walked up to the room to find a woman with mouth hanging open and wide eyes as she peered into a Kleenex box.
I told her the money was mine and explained I'd left it there when checking out of the hotel.
Told her how much money was there and she could verify it.
But that wasn't necessary. She handed me the money without hesitation.
I peeled off a $50 and thanked her honesty as I handed her the bill and got back on my way West.
 
When I was a kid I had a whole $5 bill. I had gone with a friend to the drugstore, but I hadn't spent any of it. When I got home and was unloading my pockets, it was gone! I had lost it. I was bummed out for a while, but it was my own fault I suppose.

Next day I had made my way down the sidewalk from my house and just before I got to the street, there it was crisply folded in four my $5 bill sitting in the gutter! I was one happy little kid.

Other than that the most I've ever found was a quarter once, and maybe 30 cents in pennies over the years. I don't really know what I'd do if I found folding money.
 
I'm getting cheap. I never used to take any change that was left in the self check out change dispenser. A few weeks ago, there were some pennies, I took them. Once at a grocery check out there was over 80 in cash left. Someone must have used a $100.00 bill. I turned it in.

Years ago, at WINCO Foods parking lot, I remember a 5 and some 1's. I was working full time then and left the money for someone else. Now I'll pick up a penny.

When I was very young I was at the beach with my brothers. My oldest brother lived on his own. We found some money in the surf. I think 10 and some 1's. I remember my brother saying that 10 dollars would really help with groceries. That was in the 60's. He gave us the one dollar bills.
 

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