If you found money while being out in public, what would the amount have to be, before you decided to turn it in vs keeping it?
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More than $20. In my old job my bosses wife dropped a pile of cash and a cheque out side of the store. I returned it to her.
It’s not about the amount. It’s about if I can find who it belongs to.
If it’s easy enough to find the person, I’ll always return it. If it’s an anonymous envelope full of cash and there’s no one around, I’m keeping it.
I think it would depend on the amount for me. Up to about a twenty, I would look around and try to see who dropped it. If I couldn’t, I would keep it. If it were more than that I would turn it in to the police if it wasn’t clear whose it was. I’m lucky to be comfortable enough that morality means more to me than money.
If there’s no way to find the rightful owner but also no sign of criminal activity *, I would keep up to about 50€, and donate it if I found more. It’s not like the police would track down the owner. I’d rather that it go to a worthy cause if it’s more than I can comfortably keep.
* If I found a suitcase full of money, I wouldn’t even touch it. I’d just call the police.
@longgone The police wouldn’t work at tracking it down but one could hope that they would keep it intact in the event that someone came to them looking for it.
@janbb I guess, if there’s any way to distinguish it from the other bills lost that day in the region. I don’t know much about this. I wonder what happens to the money that’s never claimed.
I once found a $100 bill on the ground, with no one around. Oh frabjous joy!
A lone bill out in the wild is lost, gone, unidentifiable.
I am with @longgone if I found a suitcase or even a paper bag full of cash. And I have returned wallets, including calling someone to let them know I had it before they realized they had lost it.
I’m keeping anything over £3,000.
Large amounts of found money means someone is in deep trouble so the best is to give to
the Police and here in Canada if no one picks it up or reports it missing usually within a time
period ( one year the most) they release it to the person who turned it in.
Especially deposit bags from a Business , if lost can be tracked down .
Place yourself in their position to understand the panic someone else may feel.
Someone’s livelihood or even life is on the line so do the right thing, and hope that that favor
is returned when you may need it too?
When I’ve found a purse or wallet it has definitely inspired sympathy so I had no question about wanting to return it.
If I found a suitcase or deposit bag, I think I would tend to be afraid of whatever unknown desperate and/or suspicious people might want it back, and what aggression they might direct my way.
And if money seems recently lost, I’d make some effort to find who lost it.
But when money seems to be not recently lost and is just money in the dirt (and not someone’s treasure stash), I think it’s there for the taking.
(And I have no tears for Citibank…)
Anything more than a couple of dollars, I would post on the neighborhood e-list if it’s near home, or walk into the store if it’s near a store. I’ve seen times when $20 is way too much to lose, the difference between eating and not eating.
I’d turn it in, if you mean to the police, if it’s closer to $200. My boyfriend once lost that much out of his pocket, and someone did turn it in to the police station. They told him people do that all the time. This was in the seventies. Wonder if that’s still true.
In any case I would not just pocket it. If I didn’t find whoever lost it, I would give it away somehow.
A silver dollar buried in the garden, though—that’s mine.
If it was in a purse or wallet, I would hand it in. I would probably keep notes totalling £20.00 or less unless I found them in a taxi or public transport or a public venue when I would hand them in. I have no hard and fast rule it would depend on the circumstances.
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