posted
When we were little my mom lost her wallet on Christmas Eve. IN it was all the cash she had taken out to get our toys out of Lay-a-way. She says she was crying her eyes out at home, when the phone rang. A man had found her wallet, and looked up her phone number and called her. He told her to meet him at the store where the toys were, so she could get there and get them out before they closed.
She tried to give him a reward, but he wouldn't accept it. Said as soon as he found it he knew there were kids somewhere that wouldnt' have toys on Christmas if he dind't find the owner of the wallet and the fact that she would be able to give her kids a happy Christmas morning was enough for him.
She's never forgotten him, and doesn't even know his name. She was a single mom at the time with two small kids and all the money she'd saved for months to buy us Christmas presents was in that wallet.
Makes you feel good about people when you hear stories like that.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Once, and only once, Ron and I drove into New York city. When we were ready to leave, our car wouldn't start. A guy with jumper cables came over to help us, but made it clear he wanted money. So, we gave him our last $20.00 and hoped our heap would make it out of the city.
The Lincoln tunnel was blocked for construction. We were SO lost. A vanload of Pakistani Immigrants tried to give us directions (we'd been told never to ask directions in NYC, because 'people will mess with you' but we were desperate). They ended up leading us to the next best way out of the city. Like, twelve hands stuck out of the vehicle pointing us to our turn.
It was really sweet.
By then, it was getting dark. We knew where we were going, but traffic was bad. Stopped at a red light, a street person came wondering over to our vehicle (It was an 86 or 87 Pontiac T1000, which is, essentially, a chevette. It was crap, and looked it. But it was the best we could do).
Ron started rolling down the window. O_O He said, "We don't have any money, but we have a bag of donut holes." He gave the man our bag of donut holes, and everybody was happy.
I tend to give panhandlers food instead of money. At least that way, you know they'll get something to eat.
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Ok look its said "an unmarked bag" exactly where are you going to turn it into?
I would go research what happens if I turn it in and it goes unclaimed. I believe there is some sort of stipulation that if property is not claimed within like 3 weeks the party that found it is entitled to it. If that was the case I would take it to the police station specify how much money is in it, tell them thats the law, and make sure that only somebody who could specify the exact amount and prove ownership coudl have it, and then I would wait 3 weeks and come back for the money.
Realistically if you find ALOT of money in an unmarked bag with no id inside (its probably drug money) if you pick up the bag start running and dont look back.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Sorry to revive another thread, but I saw this article and immediately thought of this thread.
Too much of a coincidence to pass up. For those that don't feel like clicking, essentially a guy in Australia found 263,000 on the street, kept it, got turned in by a coworker, and went to jail. The police said if he'd turned it in it would have been his because no one called to claim it.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
See, he followed my advice partway. He did put half of it in a safe deposit box. Putting the other half in a backpack under his desk was pretty stupid though. Yeesh. I wonder what the coworker was doing opening his bag though. I wonder if there was some strange behavior which prompted him to do so.
Posts: 5656 | Registered: Oct 1999
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Besides having a healthy fear of the law, or at least of what it would do to me if I kept it and got caught (which I would; it's a law of nature), I really believe in "do unto others...". If I lost that much money (not that I'd ever have it), I'd want whoever found it to turn it in, so that obligates me to turn that large an amount of money in if I find it. Now, having said that...
quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: I think you have to prove that you used to have it and you don't any more. And I think it's money over a certain amount; I don't think they care if you find $20.
...I did find $20 once, on the street near an ATM machine. There was no one around, and no way that anyone could prove it was theirs, even if they came looking for it. That $20 bought dinner that night.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Don't mess around with duffle bags, backpacks, shopping bags, etc. that are sitting around unattended.
For me it has to do with how likely it is that the money gets back to where it belongs. $20 in an empty parking lot, I'd keep it; $20 on the floor of a shop or an office, I'd try to find who dropped it or turn it in.
Posts: 11187 | Registered: Sep 2005
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