Finders Keepers They Say

toffee

toffee

Senior Member
Location
uk
how many of us have found something /money or a object / and thought shall I hand it in or keep it ' money has no owner so to speak '
so if handed in who in the end gets it if not claimed, I found a five pound note on a bus seat years ago ' and found a small wage pkt but I did hand that in ,
but the money I kept ' and on holiday I picked up a pair of designer sun glasses- mind u they where laying on a beach but did look nice on hahaha so '
how honest are you ………….!!!!!!!!!!!!;)
 

If I came across something or some money and it looked hopelessly lost to me I would have picked it up and kept it.

If I thought I could reunite it with its rightful owner I would do that.

If I was having qualms about it then I would toss the money into a donation kettle for some worthwhile cause.

If I was not having qualms about it I would treat it as a sign from above and spend the money on some small treat.

For me the answer is never the same, I just muddle along doing what feels right at the time!
ermm.gif
ohmy.gif
lol.gif
 
I cant remember finding anything but if I found money, it would depend on where I found it and how much
 

Several years ago, I was shopping at a "Target" nearby. I saw a woman's billfold on a bottom shelf. I looked around for a possible owner, but didn't see anyone. I looked inside & found a driver's license, several credit cards & lots of cash - all $50's & $100's - over $4,600.00. I had to get to a dental appointment. I went home & put the wallet in my gun safe & got the woman's telephone number from the phone book. I called her & left a message on her answering machine to let her know I had the wallet & I left my name, phone & address & not to worry because I put it in my gun safe & I'm the only one with the combination. I told her I'll call again when I got back home from my dental appointment.

When I got home, there was a frantic message on my phone; she was very upset, crying, etc. I called her & we met at Target. She was still crying.

While we were in the store, several Target employees kept asking me why I didn't leave the wallet with their "Lost & Found" Dept. I just laughed & said "I wanted to make sure she got everything back." She insisted on giving me $40.00 that I didn't want.

I also learned something about 2 of my so-called friends, who are no longer my friends. They told me how stupid I was not to keep the money.
 
Over the years, I have had several people turn over found loose cash, wallets with cash in them, cash in a brown lunch bag and even some people trying to give me a found dog or cat. We take most everything of value, then issue a receipt with amount of cash, but no animals. They are referred to the local SPCA.
 
One of my 2 former buddies told me I was being "Unreasonable" to cut off a friendship over this. I explained that if he would have said something like, "I would have returned the wallet but not the cash," that wouldn't have been as bad. But to say I was stupid to return the cash...well, that defined the type of person he was - someone I'd want nothing to do with.
 
Pepper said:
I would have said "I locked it in my safe" not said "gun". Don't know why I'm saying this silly thing, but anyway, win, good for you.
Click to expand...
I also don't why you're saying this silly thing, except maybe you just don't like guns - which is your prerogative. To each his own. :)
 
Actually I’ve never found any lost wallets or paper money but if I see a coin I always leave it hoping a child will find it & get a kick out of it.
 
Geezerette said:
Actually I’ve never found any lost wallets or paper money but if I see a coin I always leave it hoping a child will find it & get a kick out of it.
Click to expand...
I read a story about an old man that used to sit in the park and toss coins on the path so he could watch the look of surprise that people got when they walked by and found them.
 
I found a man‘s wallet in the weeds when looking at a home block of land, it didn’t have any money in it when I found It as it had been stolen out of a parked car however I looked up,the persons name in the phone book and returned the contents via mail he in turn sent us a lotto ticket ..nah never got a cent from it.but it was nice of him he was great full to get the cards and personal information in the wallet back even though he’d cancelled most of the cards.

Another time I found a heap of cards while out walking , Centrelink ( welfare card) bankcard and store cards all held together with a wide rubber band they belonged to someone who lived 400 km from Adelaide so I posted them to the address on the cards
 
Next time I’m in the city ( Adelaide South Aust ) I’ll try to remember to take A photo of the footpath down the east end of Rundle Mall in the heart of the city
There as shiny gold / sliver coins of every denomination and from all counties of the world stuck in the
concrete footpath , I’ve seen so many bend over in the attempt the pick up one of the coins
 
There was one other time I found cash but it was a bad situation - It also changed my perception of police officers.
When I was 19, my girlfriend & I went to a nearby park for a picnic. I went to the park restroom. When I walked in, I saw a man slumped against the wall, right next to a urinal. I remember thinking, "Wow, this will teach him not to drink too much; when he wakes up he will realize he passed out in the filthiest place he could."
After a few seconds, I thought, "Hmmm....it sure is quiet in here; I don't hear him breathing."
I took a closer look & noticed that his shirt wasn't moving, so he wasn't breathing. I also noticed that the reddish-brown jacket he was wearing wasn't really that color; it was just soaked in blood. And that gym bag next to him had cash in it.
I never saw a dead person & I was freaked. I ran out of the restroom & the first thing my girlfriend said to me was, "Why is your face so white?"
After I told her what happened, we walked across the street to a gas station & called police. They told us to go back to the park.
When the two officers arrived, one of them spoke to me while the other one went into the restroom. He came out of the restroom & said to the other officer: "Yeah, he's the one." (I later learned that the guy tried to rob a liquor store a couple of blocks away & the clerk shot him).
The officer asked me to tell him everything I touched in the restroom. I said, "Only the handle on the urinal to flush it."
He asked, "Did you see the cash in the bag?" I said, "Yes."
Then the jerk cop asked, "How much cash did you take?"
I replied, "None, sir. How much cash did YOU take?"
He asked, "Why are you being a smart ass?"
I said, "Because you just accused me of stealing money."
He says, "No, I just asked if you touched the cash."
I said, "No, that's not what you asked. I got very good grades in English. How 'bout your grades?"
He replied, "Pffffft," & walked away.
Yeah....cop sees a young person with shoulder-length hair, so he figures he must be some drugged-out hippie thief....
 
A nice guy found my weekly grocery money, called me, and mailed the check back to me. I sent him a $25 reward because he took the trouble. However, when I left my purse in a store bathroom, someone turned it in at the service desk but took the money inside. Guess they thought that was their reward for their trouble. Finders keepers.
 
Last edited:
One time I found a $20 bill in the tray of an ATM machine. Kept it. Figured, if someone came around looking for it while I was still in the convenience store, I would hand it over. Another time, I found an ATM card sticking out of a machine at the grocery store. So, I was nice and pushed it back into the machine, so that it would be safe.
On the other side of the coin, I left my purse in a shopping cart at Walmart. As I had my keys in my hand already (had unlocked my door) I never noticed until I got home. I called the store right away and someone HAD turned it in. So I retrieved it. Even though, there was no actual way I could prove it was me before claiming it, I did take out my drivers license and show them my picture on it.
 
I found a wallet packed with credit card and I guessed between $1,600-$2,000 while I was in a county tax office. I gave it to the security guard and never heard from the owner who was in the building at the time.
 
win231 said:
Several years ago, I was shopping at a "Target" nearby. I saw a woman's billfold on a bottom shelf. I looked around for a possible owner, but didn't see anyone. I looked inside & found a driver's license, several credit cards & lots of cash - all $50's & $100's - over $4,600.00. I had to get to a dental appointment. I went home & put the wallet in my gun safe & got the woman's telephone number from the phone book. I called her & left a message on her answering machine to let her know I had the wallet & I left my name, phone & address & not to worry because I put it in my gun safe & I'm the only one with the combination. I told her I'll call again when I got back home from my dental appointment.
When I got home, there was a frantic message on my phone; she was very upset, crying, etc. I called her & we met at Target. She was still crying.
While we were in the store, several Target employees kept asking me why I didn't leave the wallet with their "Lost & Found" Dept. I just laughed & said "I wanted to make sure she got everything back." She insisted on giving me $40.00 that I didn't want.
I also learned something about 2 of my so-called friends, who are no longer my friends. They told me how stupid I was not to keep the money.
Click to expand...

Now that I think about it, if I find a wallet full of cash and look inside and see that it belongs to a cop, I think what I'm going to do is take out all the cash and donate it anonymously to Black Lives Matter. :)
 
Trade said:
That was really good of you Win. I would do the same thing if I found something like that today. But shit, I have no debt and 100K in savings. So another 5K wouldn't affect me at all. I'd just put it into savings too and have 105K and my life would go on just the same.

But go back in time 30 years when I was bankrupt and up to my eyeballs in debt from my divorce and had cutody of my two teenaged boys and things were a lot different. The thought of having $4600 in hard cold cash that neither the IRS, my creditors, or the bankruptcy courts knew about would have been mighty tempting. I can't say what I would have done then. When people are up against it they will do things they would never ordinarily think about.
Click to expand...
“Principles are nice things. If you can afford them. I like to think I am a principled man, but then, most men do. The fact is, we all have a price, we all have buttons that can press to make us do things that are not entirely honorable. Principles do not pay the mortgage or clear our debts. A principled man is generally a man who has everything he wants or absolutely nothing to lose.” - C. J. Tudor, The Chalk Man
 
The most I ever found was a 20 dollar bill. Actually it was a 20 dollar MPC (Military Payment Certificate). I found it when I was stationed at Cam Rahn Bay. Us GI's weren't allowed to have greenbacks there.

I lost 70 bucks once when I put my wallet and the trunk of the car and then forgot it and drove off. I got the wallet back, someone found it on the road and turned it in to the cops. All my stuff was in it except for the cash.

So overall I figure I'm 50 bucks in the hole.
 
I read a story about an old man that used to sit in the park and toss coins on the path so he could watch the look of surprise that people got when they walked by and found them.
Click to expand...

I don't know, something creepy about that.
 
Win, whenever I see one of these stories about people accidentially losing wallets, etc. full of large amounts of cash, etc;., I have to wonder how anyone could do that. Who walks around with a wallet stuffed with thousands of dollars in cash, much less leaves it on a shelf in a store? If for some reason, I had a large amount of money in my wallet (can't really think why I would, but just suppose), I would have my hand on that wallet every second. Why would someone put it on shelf in a store and just "forget" it?

That scenario is really bizarre. Maybe it happened more often in medieval times, when people carried their gold coins, etc. around with them, as banks did not exist? But in today's world, a wallet stuffed with money like that would make me very suspicious. Maybe the money was just stolen from the store's cash register, and the thief panicked about what they were doing, and dropped the wallet and the money like a hot potato? Maybe it was a joke, with counterfeit bills? Or maybe a scenario for that TV show, What Would You Do? with a cameraman lurking around the corner?

If all was on the level and this absent-minded woman was carrying around such a large amount of cash in a wallet that she "accidentally" left on a store shelf, then she is an idiot. Or she could have something wrong with her mind.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top