Found $ What would you have done?

[FLSUnFIRE]

I'd put it in my pocket. If I had an hunch who lost it or could narrow it down to 1-2 people, I would (and have) approached them but otherwise found money is found money unless it's a large amount or in a deposit bag, wallet, etc that offered some clues/ability to verify the person that lost it in which case I'd put in effort proportional to the amount.



I used to find more money as I walk and run but with fewer people using cash and several homeless on the streets downtown it is pretty rare. So far this year I've found 26¢ (a quarter at BWI on Sunday and a penny yesterday when walking to my annual physical). Last year was well under $10 but found a few dollars in change and a few $1 bills.


* I found a debit card not that long ago and googled the person to try to contact them to return it.... the hits indicated this person had multiple violent felony convictions so I shredded it and assumed they'd get a replacement. I wasn't going to risk reaching out to a repeat violent offender.

 

[Sue J]

One time I came out of the Post Office and walked to my car. A man was standing there and pointed to a $20 bill on the ground. He said, "Is this yours?" I knew it wasn't mine and just had a quick thought that it could be a set up to get me to bend down to pick it up. So I just said, "Nope, not mine!" and let him have it.

Another time I was at the gym and used the restroom. In the stall a women's wallet was on the shelf above the TP. It had her ID, credit cards and cash. I immediately took it to the registration desk and asked for the supervisor. The facility director was there. He took me to an office and we checked out the wallet together, counting $112 in cash. He gave me his business card and promised he would return it to the member.

I never heard anything from them that it had been returned to her, but I assumed it had been taken care of. A few years later I saw an obituary for the facility director that I had dealt with. He was only 41. I read some of the comments and the Go Fund Me link and some people referred to his long struggles with alcohol addiction. That made me wonder of he returned the cash with the wallet or if he returned the wallet and said there was no cash when it was turned in. I'll never know.

If this ever happens to me again I'll turn it into the police dept.

 

[scrabbler1]

OP, you went above and beyond the call of duty. I commend you.

I can't say I have ever found that large an amount of money. But back in 2008, the last year I was working and riding the trains to work, on several separate occasions I found smaller amounts of money or their equivalents.

Twice, on the sidewalk down the street from the entrance to my apartment building, I found some money on the sidewalk. Once, it was a $5 or $10 bill. The other time it was several $1s and some coins. Another time, my dad had a library book and it had an unused LIRR train ticket left over as a bookmark. He had no use for it so I took it. It was worth about $8 toward a future ride. And another time, I boarded an empty PATH train (a subway-like train which goes to New Jersey) and found about $13 and a Metrocard (electronic fare card) which had several dollars left on it. I took it.

At New York's Penn Station on a late Sunday night back in 2015, I was waiting for the lone bathroom stall for a man to finish. When he left, I saw his wallet left on the floor. I took it and chased the man down (luckily the station was pretty empty at that off-hour) and returned his wallet. He was very relieved, as he had no idea he had lost it (yet).

I figure these finders-keepers events make up for the times where I lose some money in a similar manner. I remember losing the $10 bill I received as some change from a restaurant bill. Overall, I am probably ahead in this area, which is fine with me.

 

[Car-Guy]

I never pick up money from the ground as long as it is not mine. Watched a lot of videos about people intentionally putting money there and making some videos of it.

Just a word of caution to others who might care... In a "somewhat" related case of finding money...

I know some of you gamble in casinos. As most of you know, most all slot machines use electric payment tickets these days. Believe it or not, it is not "uncommon" for someone to forget to cash out when they are moving from one machine to another. (I guess it's the excitement of gambling

So if you play slots, always look to see if the machine is still showing credits (money) before you put your money in and start to play. If you see credits, move on to another machine since taking the ticket and cashing it out for cash is considered theft. I've seen it happen more than once and in one case actually seen a person held for the cops.

 

[COcheesehead]

I never pick up money from the ground as long as it is not mine. Watched a lot of videos about people intentionally putting money there and making some videos of it.

Not sure I understand.

 

[pacergal]

OP--you did the right things.

I have found a couple $20s, and who knows how much change over the years.

 

[EarlyandLate]

Thanks for all the encouraging remarks! It disturbed me a bit to find that much. Since it was in the grocery section, I knew it was someone's grocery money. I did not grow up wealthy and know how much turmoil losing that much money can cause a low income person.

 

[Car-Guy]

Thanks for all the encouraging remarks! It disturbed me a bit to find that much. Since it was in the grocery section, I knew it was someone's grocery money. I did not grow up wealthy and know how much turmoil losing that much money can cause a low income person.

If that's what is bothering you, remember rich people grocery shop too. And you tried to find them....

 

[athena53]

If that's what is bothering you, remember rich people grocery shop too. And you tried to find them....

It's a tough call whether or not someone carrying $100 bills is rich or poor. The ATM in the shopping center in one of the poorer areas of my town spits out two $100 bills if you withdraw $200. I can only guess that that's the preferred denomination there but I won't use their machine for that reason. To me, a $100 bill is a nuisance. I put just about everything on the credit cards for the cash back and pay in full every month.

OTOH, I was having dinner with my two cousins in Ohio and was going to insist on paying but they started throwing $100 bills on the tray. (There were 6 of us.) Both are very successful entrepreneurs and too big for me to wrestle so I let them pay.

So, who knows about their status but, as you noted, the OP tried to find them.

 

[swakyaby]

I really didn't trust the store clerk to not skim a few $100 if it went to lost and found.

I’ve learned from experience that even store management cannot be always trusted. I found a man’s wallet in the parking lot as I was heading into a grocery store. The wallet contained credit cards, a USpassport, and cash. DH and I located the assistant store manager who said he would hold onto it for safe-keeping. 10 minutes later, I am exiting the store with my groceries. A flustered-looking man is racing from the parking lot and sees a store employee asking if anyone has turned in a brown wallet containing a passport. The store employee says no. I turned and looked and recognized him as the assistant store manager we had given the wallet to. The assistant manager heard me gasp and saw my accusing eyes. He quickly said, “Oh wait, we do have a lost wallet,” and proceeded to pull it out of his pocket.” Such a jerk.

 

[Act2]

Many years ago I was at a conference; some participants were drinking heavily and loud in the hallway late into the night as I was trying to sleep. Next morning, there was a crumpled $ 100 bill on the floor right outside my room door. Decided not to try to find the owner, declared it a ‘drunk tax’ on whoever had apparently pulled it out of their pocket while trying to find their room. Left it as a tip for hotel housekeeping staff. Figured that as drunk as some folks had been, there was likely a big mess somewhere in the hotel they had to contend with that night.

 

[NW-Bound]

My daughter once lost her wallet at an airport on a flight home. A couple of days after arriving home, she received it in the mail, shipped by whoever found it. The wallet content was all there, less $20 that the finder used for the shipping cost.

My son once found a man's wallet on the street near the university and took it home. I don't remember how the owner's phone number was in there, but my son called him and he rushed to my home to retrieve it. Relieved, he insisted that my son accepted a monetary reward.

 

[calmloki]

Worked at a mushroom farm some decades ago - big place, produced over a million pounds of agaricus bisporus in a month - and had a very large percentage of workers whose documents weren't really in order. Hard workers, good people who shipped a lot of their earnings home but didn't have access to US banks. I was in a bathroom stall and found a wallet sitting on the back of a toilet. Didn't recognize the name, but it had $600 in it. Figured that represented all the money the owner had, so turned it in at the office. Didn't consider that the office worker would do other than return it, still believe she did. Never heard a word about it after.

Since then I've had money and animal chewed cards returned to me after dropping a wallet. Lots of good people in the world.

 

[rk911]

lost wallet with weird ending

one friday night in the mid 1970's my wife and I went to the late show at the local theatre. we returned home close to 11:30 and it was then I realized that I had lost my wallet. we immediately returned to the now-locked theatre and knocked on the door. after what seemed like an eternity someone from the cleaning crew answered and after hearing my story let us back in. i remembered precisely where we had been sitting (last row on the aisle) but no wallet was there or in any of the adjacent rows. whoever took it or found it reaped a credit card and a small amount of cash with the remainder being photos, membership cards, etc.

the next morning I started making notifications the first being making a police report and then getting my drivers license replaced. luckily the DMV branch office was open open on Saturday and armed with the police report a duplicate license was ordered and a temp was issued on the spot. that done i cancelled the credit card, bought a new wallet, cashed a check (no ATMs in those days) and resumed my life.

5 or 6 days later I received a notice in the mail from the post office of a package delivery that I would need to appear in person and sign for it. so off to the PO I go. after showing ID and signing a receipt of delivery the clerk hands me a clear plastic bag with, not my wallet, but the contents of my wallet minus the cash. all of my membership cards, the credit card, library card, DL..everything except the wallet itself and the cash. i was happy but puzzled. the clerk told me that these items had been found in a corner mailbox (remember those?). wow! somebody had put a rubber band around the wallet's contents and tossed that into the PO box. so where was the wallet itself? maybe the thief kept that and the cash? but why return the DL and credit card? in any case I was a very happy guy.

 

[brett]

Depends where you find it.

I found a 1000 bhat Thai note on a beach. No one around. What is worse I stepped on it to stop it blowing away. A big no no in Thailand because the King's image was on it.

We spent it on a very nice dinner beside the beach!

 

[Koolau]

They do say money is the root of all evil.

Slightly misquoted by most folks: It's actually "The LOVE of money is the root of all evil." Money is just a tool and, as my tag lines states it can be used and/or misused. YMMV

 

[friar1610]

When I was about 10 years old in the 1950’s I found a $20 bill on the street in front of the Army-Navy Club in our town. I picked it up and found a cop and asked him what I should do with it. I’ve never forgotten his response - “I dunno what you’re gonna do with it, kid, but I know what I’d do with it.” (That was the extent of his “help”.) I told my mother about my find. She was concerned that some vet from the club had dropped it so she called them to see if there had been any reports of missing money and there hadn’t been. So I got to keep it. It’s funny, though, that I have no recollection of what I did with the money - just the stories about the cop and my mother.

 

[Koolau]

Buddy and I were riding our bikes ca 1958 and I saw a wallet on the sidewalk. I stopped and looked inside. In addition to ID, there was $64 - which was a lot of money back then - especially to a kid who got an allowance of 50 cents. Buddy wanted to keep the money. I returned the wallet in person as the owner lived only a few blocks away. The guy thanked me but offered no reward. I didn't really expect one, but had someone done that for me (me, now as the adult me) I'd have at least offered them 10 bucks. YMMV

 

[sengsational]

My dad bought a video camera in the era after VHS came out, but before the camcorder. I mixed up some epoxy glue and glued $0.47 to the road in front of our house. Then my brothers and I did a candid camera thing from the living room window. There were daily walkers. Hilarious! There were people who came back with screw drivers!

 

[Koolau]

My dad bought a video camera in the era after VHS came out, but before the camcorder. I mixed up some epoxy glue and glued $0.47 to the road in front of our house. Then my brothers and I did a candid camera thing from the living room window. There were daily walkers. Hilarious! There were people who came back with screw drivers!

Yeah, my dad "commemorated" the year he poured a new sidewalk in front of the family business by imbedding a current US Penny in the concrete. It lasted about 3 days before someone chipped it out. Unbelivagable.

 

[Oakster]

I was at the drag races in Douglas Wyoming one year with a good friend. We were walking down to the finish line to watch some races at that end of the track. I happened to glance down and saw some money in the grass. My instinct was to put both hands on his shoulder and shove really hard (good friends you know) and roll him over on his ear, then rush to pick up the two $20 bills I saw. I bought lunch and laughed my butt off.

 

[JohnRM]

Found money

I would poke around for a bit but if no leads, just stick it in my pocket. There is no special obligation for found cash.

I did find a wallet that had US cash and some rupees, and since there is only one Indian household on that block, He has a food truck, I went to his house and he made a phone call for some reason and I understand it belonged to an employee. No thank you or anything, in fact he practically slammed the door in my face after I gave him the wallet to pass along. Maybe he was having a bad day.

 

[urn2bfree]

On a dark, deserted suburban St Louis street I spotted a $100 bill. I picked it up and when I got home and saw it was something even more unlikely to find. In decent light I could see it said it was
“FOR MOTION PICTURE PURPOSES ONLY”. And on the back “In Props We Trust”

 

[megacorp-firee]

DE found a wallet in the mirage poker room in Las Vegas. 32k or so in wallet. Turned it in to the poker room manager. Guy came and claimed it. Not a thanks or anything. Such is life.
In the same poker room DW found a 100 bill. One of the chip runners dropped it. Manager gave DW and me comps to the buffet. Such is life. ... do the right things. Karma

 

[HGTVFanatic]

I think OP did the right thing. Similar thing happened to us (our work survey crew in the early 1980's). One of us found a $100 bill in the parking lot of a grocery store after work. We went into the store and asked the manager if anyone had reported losing money. We didn't tell him the amount.

Nobody had reported missing money, so we gave the manager our phone number and told him to call us if someone showed up looking for lost money. Got a phone call a little later from a frantic lady saying that she had lost a lot of money. We asked her the amount and demonization. She said a single $100 bill. We drove back to the grocery store and gave her the money.

That was very nice of you. I’m sure she was very grateful.