Money found- what would you do?

My mother is a saint.

She always tells me about the things she buys at consignment stores, and then went on to tell about a certain purse. As she was going up to the counter, she felt something in a hidden pocket- lo and behold, there was a wad of cash

--1200 dollars in crisp, new $100 US bills.

To the point, she gives it to the store, and they call the consignee- her daughter mentions that her mother (the consignee) is always hiding money and losing it.

Her 2 part conclusion
[A]- You'll feel stupid for a couple days, but not guilty for the rest of your life
- If she had been in a place that doesn't keep track of who consigns what, then she would have kept it. If there's no way to send it back to the original owner, it is an "accessory" to the item.


How about you?

I personally agree with her, but given the situation I most likely would have walked off with it, being the bad person I am. If someone is stupid enough to leave $1200, much less carry that cash in a purse, AND give the bag to a store without checking it then... Welp.

 

Pay off some bills and forever remember how I found the cash randomly while trying to pay the karma forwards in full until complete.

Sometimes it flat out isn't possible to track down the original owner. If I could I probably would.

 

For that reason alone I would have kept it and not a single drop of guilt would have flown through my veins.

 

Kept it and never thought back again. I have no tangible conscience that would allow for guilt...

 

I never hand in money to any where, unless I saw the person drop it.

 

I once found a $100 dollar bill on the ground in front of a store. Handed it in to the cashier. Cashier said they had an idea on who dropped it. Told me to hold on to it. Dude found me next day. Said it was his so I gave it over. I wish I hadn't since that dude was, and to this day probably still is, a worthless scumbag who works for the water/ sewer plant there. I doubt if it was even his that he dropped...

 

I agree with ASSEMbler: it would depend on the situation. For me, it mainly depends on whether it's possible for the money/item to get back to the original owner. If not, you might as well keep it - because if you don't, it'll just end up in the hands of someone else who doesn't own it, and that's no better (or worse). I would also refer you to the case of Finders v. Keepers.

 

True story this. In December I found a 18k Gold wedding ring with 14c diamond on it in the food court line at IKEA. I asked if it belonged to anyone but everyone just looked at me as if I was a nut job. So I talk to security who say they don't have a lost and found. I ended up putting a message on the stores message board but got no replies. So last week I pawned it at a jewellers and got 25'000 yen I tried to find the owner but I live almost 80 miles away from IKEA so there was only so much I could do.

 

I agree with la-li-lu-le-lo and assembler.

Per case basis

 

In most cases it'd seem pretty much impossible to track down the owner, unless you just saw them drop the cash or something. It's not like cash has their name on it.

 

well it depends on the situation, i've found money on the street a few times and if there's no way to trace the owner then i've kept it. However once i found a wallet with money still in it and took it to the owners home, only to have him accuse me of stealing it in the first place....to which i just threw it in his face and walked off. So to be honest if it can't be traced, don't hand it in - more often than not it will get pocketed by dishonest shopkeepers etc, and if it could be traced hand it into the police.

 

Consignment store probably pocketed the 1200 she handed in.

For something like that I'd keep it. If however I find a lost wallet, phone etc I hand them into the police, I think 6 months later if it isn't reclaimed they get given to the person who found it.

 

"Her 2 part conclusion
[A]- You'll feel stupid for a couple days, but not guilty for the rest of your life
- If she had been in a place that doesn't keep track of who consigns what, then she would have kept it. If there's no way to send it back to the original owner, it is an "accessory" to the item."

This is EXACTLY how I feel about it.

 

When I was in boarding school I found a wallet with 120 Deutschmarks (a fortune for an eleven year old at the time), but I returned it. Got no reward. No regrets.

 

its situational but i wouldn't be stupid enough to carry more then 20-30 quid on me in person

 

Probably happened from a "marital dis-agreement" as what happens in ALL Ikea stores.....

 

I'd have given it back, but I wouldn't have gone through the consignment store directly. I'd have told them to give the seller my info, and have them buzz me.

 

I've found money on public bathroom floors on certain occasions. Must have been some lucky days for me. My rule is finders keepers, and the same rule would apply if this situation happened to me.

 

Ive never been lucky enough to find large amounts of money, but I did drop my wallet once with just over R800 (+/- $100) an old lady returned it to me,but helped herself to the R800, I just wrote it off as maybe she needed it more and it would have been a HUGE pain to go and stop all my cards, get a new drivers license and ID.

Regardless, if I found a large amount of cash dropped somewhere with no identification, or with a risk that some one els might just take it for themselves without returning it, I would keep it.

There really isn't anyway to tell who dropped/lost the money, or what it was going to be used for, rent or drug money,or what effect giving it back will have on the person, you really have no idea.