Finders Keepers They Say

[Trade]

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've seen where kids will glue a penny down to the sidewalk and then get a laugh when someone tries to pick it up.

I learned about that trick when I tried to pick one up.

I don't pick up pennies anymore. Even if I'm sure they aren't glued down, at 72 it just ain't worth bending over that far for a penny.

But I'll still do it for a dime.

 

[Aunt Bea]

I've seen where kids will glue a penny down to the sidewalk and then get a laugh when someone tries to pick it up.

I learned about that trick when I tried to pick one up.

I don't pick up pennies anymore. Even if I'm sure they aren't glued down, at 72 it just ain't worth bending over that far for a penny.

But I'll still do it for a dime.

I never pass by free money and bending over is good exercise.
There is a sidewalk near my home where the mason set a penny when he poured the concrete many years ago and it still fools people.

 

[win231]

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.

I can see how it can happen. It probably fell out of her purse while she was browsing & she may have been hearing impaired, so she didn't hear it land on the shelf. Or, she may have taken the wallet out to check for something like a credit card or a Target card & set it down on the shelf for a second & forgot about it.

I also saw that her check book had many big checks written to doctors, so she was probably being treated for a medical condition & many medications can cause a lack of awareness. From her appearance, I'd say life hasn't been good to her. That money may have meant life or death to her.

 

[win231]

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. So sure, I'll be a hero and track down the owner and give it back. And I'll refuse to take a reward. Then I'll pat myself on the back for being such an awesome dude and feel good about myself for days, maybe weeks. Hell, maybe the rest of my life.

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.

I wouldn't blame someone in that situation for keeping the money. But I'm thinking, "There is always someone worse off than me."

 

[Uptosnuff]

The one thing I will always turn in is a purse I see lying on a seat or a table and no one is around. I have done this several times. And I have to say I have forgotten my purse at restaurants before and I have always been able to either come back and find the purse where I left it or at the counter where someone has taken it for safe keeping.

If I see money just lying on the ground, it's mine.

 

[Trade]

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....

I remember the day I started hating cops. My buddy Ed and I were surfing near Clearwater Florida. We had started out at Sand Key but the rip current had pulled us south until we were in front of some fancy high dollar condos on Bellair Beach. We were in the water the whole time. Never even setting foot on the shore. Besides that everything from the mean high tide line seaward is public. But apparently one of the condo residents looked out there window and it just ruined his or her day to see a couple of surfers out in the water so they called the cops on us. So the cop comes walking out and yells out to us that this is a private beach and that we have to leave. So I informed him that we were not on the private part because that ends at the mean high water line and we are nowhere near that. Well that really set him off. I guess that was "disrespect of cop" so he went off on me and informed me that if I didn't leave right then he would arrest us for Trespassing. So there you have it. It didn't matter what the law was. Some rich person didn't want to have to see riff raff defiling their view of the Gulf of Mexico and it was to cop's job to remove said riff raff.

Later on, around 1980 I learned more about cop culture. Money was tight and I still had quite a bit of credit left on my GI Bill, I enrolled at Polk Community College and started taking Police Science courses. Not that I had any intention of being a cop, but community college tuition was cheap back then and part time GI bill benefits paid for that plus almost enough left over to pay my $225 a month mortgage. So taking classes beat the heck out of taking a part time job at night for extra cash. As a result, I actually have an A.S. in Police Science. And most of the people in my classes were either cops or wanted to be cops. Plus most of the instructors had come out of law enforcement too. It really opened my eyes to the attitude that a lot of cops have, not only to criminals but also to the public at large.

Basicly what I found out was that in Cop culture there were two kinds of people in the world. Police, and non-Police.

 

[Olivia]

The one thing I will always turn in is a purse I see lying on a seat or a table and no one is around. I have done this several times. And I have to say I have forgotten my purse at restaurants before and I have always been able to either come back and find the purse where I left it or at the counter where someone has taken it for safe keeping.

If I see money just lying on the ground, it's mine.

I remember the horrible experience where I got off the bus near to where I worked. Besides my purse I had another bag with me.
Anyway, I got off the bus and when I did I only realized that I didn't have my purse with me until I crossed the street and I was almost at my building. Horrors!

Anyway I went back to the bus stop somehow knowing that the bus would turn around when it got further up on its route. Finally after waiting probably 30 minutes the bus came back. I wasn't really sure that it was the same bus, but when it stopped at my stop where I was, I climbed up the stair to the bus driver and I didn't even has to ask. He handed me my purse. And everything was there. Bless you, whoever you were who was honest and caring enough to turn my purse over to the driver.

 

[win231]

I remember the day I started hating cops. My buddy Ed and I were surfing near Clearwater Florida. We had started out at Sand Key but the rip current had pulled us south until we were in front of some fancy high dollar condos on Bellair Beach. We were in the water the whole time. Never even setting foot on the shore. Besides that everything from the mean high tide line seaward is public. But apparently one of the condo residents looked out there window and it just ruined his or her day to see a couple of surfers out in the water so they called the cops on us. So the cop comes walking out and yells out to us that this is a private beach and that we have to leave. So I informed him that we were not on the private part because that ends at the mean high water line and we are nowhere near that. Well that really set him off. I guess that was "disrespect of cop" so he went off on me and informed me that if I didn't leave right then he would arrest us for Trespassing. So there you have it. It didn't matter what the law was. Some rich person didn't want to have to see riff raff defiling their view of the Gulf of Mexico and it was to cop's job to remove said riff raff.

Later on, around 1980 I learned more about cop culture. Money was tight and I still had quite a bit of credit left on my GI Bill, I enrolled at Polk Community College and started taking Police Science courses. Not that I had any intention of being a cop, but community college tuition was cheap back then and part time GI bill benefits paid for that plus almost enough left over to pay my $225 a month mortgage. So taking classes beat the heck out of taking a part time job at night for extra cash. As a result, I actually have an A.S. in Police Science. And most of the people in my classes were either cops or wanted to be cops. Plus most of the instructors had come out of law enforcement too. It really opened my eyes to the attitude that a lot of cops have, not only to criminals but also to the public at large.

Basicly what I found out was that in Cop culture there were two kinds of people in the world. Police, and non-Police.

"So I informed him that we were not on the private part because that ends at the mean high water line and we are nowhere near that."
HAHA. "I'm a cop, therefore I know everything, so don't you DARE correct me."

 

[Uptosnuff]

@Olivia

Isn't that just the biggest relief to see your purse again? It's hard to describe just how good that feeling is. I'm glad you had a happy ending.

You would think that after leaving the darn thing all over the place I would learn to just leave it at home. But, no, I have to carry it everywhere with me.