Found Money

[myrdale]

This past weekend I was driving through a nearby town. The area was non-residential. No side walks, lots of random business fronts, not the sort open necessarily to the public. I saw a $20 blowing down the side of the road and thought "heck yeah!" so I pulled into the entrance of a parking lot and walked up to the road and grabbed it. A few feet away there was a $5, got it too.

I got in the truck and as I was leaving the parking lot, I saw a $1, definitely worth my time! This time thought I pulled all the way into the parking lot and went walking across the ditch and embankment. And then there at my foot was a $50 and $50, and some $20's and a couple more $50's and a well worn 20 Honduran Iempira (worth about $0.80).

All told it was $377 cash blowing down the length of the ditch. A weeks salary? Bail money? Drug money? Child supports? No clue.

The situation leaves me wondering what is reasonable, practical, and right, and what are the limits?

If you found $1 blowing down the road, I don't think anyone would have a problem picking it up. What if it was $1,000 or $100,000?

I don't think leaving the cash blowing in the wind is a reasonable action, as someone will eventually find it, original owner or not.

Turning it into the police I am guessing <1% chance anyone would report $377 missing, and I am not interested in supporting their donuts fund.

The story would be completely different had there been a wallet with an ID, but being just cash there is no connection to anyone. I suspect the 20 Iempira probably is worth more to the person than the cash.

What would you have done?

[james.hendrickson]

The problem is...nobody can really unambiguously identify who the exact dollar bills belong to. Money isn't like a pet, a child or some distinct piece of property. What if two people lost their money on that same stretch of road at the same time. There would be no way to tell who the bills actually belonged to.

[ua_guy]

It happens. I was walking in Costco and saw a bill on the floor and grabbed it. $100. Life went on, $100 richer.

In the case of $377 blowing around in a ditch, yeah, I would have taken it too. Now if it's a wallet, I'm obviously going to turn that in and I'd want people to do the same for me.

[QuarterMillionMan]

The best I've done was a $20 bill on the street, gave my friend half and we ate lunch. Another time at the mall found a $10 bill on the sidewalk, deposited in the kettle drum where a Salvation Army person was ringing the bell. Another time a $5 bill while weed whacking bushes, pocketed it. Once I did find a wallet in the parking lot of Hawaii's Kapiolani Community College Diamond Head campus (formerly they had a campus on Pensacola Street). It contained about $350 in cash and the guy's ID's, credit cards and a pay stub for Home Depot. I called and spoke with a manager who alerted the guy who came to pick it up. He said his grandmother told him to give me a reward of $100, but I would not take it. I told him I was satisfied with reuniting the wallet with all its contents to the rightful owner.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Cash I would take as long as not in a wallet or envelope. But on the ground? Yes. But it's different when it is a wallet or envelope that makes it obvious.

[myrdale]

Now if it's a wallet, I'm obviously going to turn that in and I'd want people to do the same for me.

I think I've come across three wallets and a cell phone.

The cell phone was in the middle of the road a stop sign where someone had stopped to tie a load down next to where I work. That was simple as they called me before I was able to ID them. I personally have my name and address scrolling across the front of my phone when its locked, they did not.

The last wallet was in the parking lot of a nail salon. It had about $1000 (well face value) of gift cards but also a drivers license. When I asked if the nail salon worker new who "Stacy" was the worker was rather rude, but when I said I had her wallet, she suddenly got friendly. I left the wallet there at the nail salon, tracked down a number for Stacy and left a message. No answer, no return.

On two separate occasions I've found debt cards and took those to the local banks. No clue if they were stolen or expired.

Lastly I did lose my own wallet once while in college (either i dropped it in the parking lot, or my roommate's friend took it, I'll never know). I did get a call from campus police about a week later that someone had turned it in. In that case they saw fit to relieve me of the $40 I had at the time.

[myrdale]

The problem is...nobody can really unambiguously identify who the exact dollar bills belong to. Money isn't like a pet, a child or some distinct piece of property. What if two people lost their money on that same stretch of road at the same time. There would be no way to tell who the bills actually belonged to.

Also I can't rightly ask how much they lost either. If I put a post on their local face book page and someone said they lost $500, there is no way for me to know there wasn't another $123 I didn't see.

[myrdale]

Cash I would take as long as not in a wallet or envelope. But on the ground? Yes. But it's different when it is a wallet or envelope that makes it obvious.

The case of an envelope is interesting. If that occurred outside of a bank, they would very likely be able to ID who withdrew a specific amount over the last little bit. If the envelope was in the ditch, the answer might be to write a note on the back "Call me 555-555-5555".

[Fishindude77]

If it bothers you, give it to charity.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Once I found an 18 kt gold necklace in a crosswalk at the university of Hawaii just outside of campus as I was walking in. Sold it to a pawn shop for $100 when gold was maybe $200/Oz. Would be worth $1000 today.

The clasp broke.

[bjl584]

Most I ever found was $20 in a gas station parking lot. I kept it.

Not a cash find, but years ago when I was still in high school I worked at a Kmart. The wind would blow across the lot and send flyers, ads, and other garbage over the hill side and into the woods that bordered the store. In order to avoid fines from the township, the store would send a crew over the hill once every couple weeks to clean up whatever trash had accumulated. One day we found a purse. There wasn't any cash in it. It was filled with random items, but it did have an ID in it. We called the police, and when they ran the ID it came back as a woman who had gone missing a year earlier in the bordering state of Ohio. We never heard anymore about it, but it was definitely a freaky thing to find.

[rennigade]

Finders keepers! If it was a wallet with money then thats a different story. Loose bills though...they're mine all day.