You find some money in the street. At what point would you hand it in?

captainarchive

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Another thread about finding a ATM card reminded me of a discussion we had amongst friends. So you find some money on the street, how much money would it have to be before you decided to hand it in to the proper authorities? For example, I think most people wouldn’t bother handing in a pound coin. Also would you keep it or do something else with it? Personally anything up to a tenner and I’m keeping it. A tenner or more would go to charity and £50 or more I’d hand in to the appropriate authority.
 
If it was a lot of money I'd keep it for a while until someone made a claim, no claim then it's mine :).
 
If it was loose cash in the street, then I'd probably keep it up to a twenty note.

A wallet or purse would be handed in regardless of the money inside.
 
if it was a tenner i would keep it, if it was £50 i'd keep it, if it was thousands i would keep it

Moral of the story i'd keep it, unless there is documentation alongside it to return it to it's owner it now belongs to me until someone proves otherwise
 
I found a wallet someone dropped next to a petrol pump once. I gave it in to the petrol station. With hindsight maybe I should have contacted the owner myself.
 
I found a wallet someone dropped next to a petrol pump once. I gave it in to the petrol station. With hindsight maybe I should have contacted the owner myself.

Yer everybody figures the person they handing it to isn't gonna pocket it themselves.
 
I found a handbag left in a Tesco trolley. Took it to the local police station after telling Tesco customer services. Woman claimed it and came to our house with a bunch of flowers and box of chocolates. If I'd known that I'd have left a note in the handbag asking for some bottles of Speckled Hen.
 
if it was a tenner i would keep it, if it was £50 i'd keep it, if it was thousands i would keep it

Moral of the story i'd keep it, unless there is documentation alongside it to return it to it's owner it now belongs to me until someone proves otherwise

Pretty much this^

If it was a large amount of money I would keep it aside untouched for a few weeks, if I heard about somebody losing money(and provided I didn't know they were loaded, and this depending amount found) I'd do my research before giving it back to its rightful owner.

Hoever if if I couldn't gain any info, it would be going in my pocket. Any ID of course it would be returned, otherwise I don't trust anybody else's honesty more than my own so I wouldn't be handing it in anywhere.

Now if it was a suitcase full of notes like in some ganster movie I'd be reporting it and running home like a girl :D
 
Now if it was a suitcase full of notes like in some ganster movie I'd be reporting it and running home like a girl :D
My friends wife went to Uni in Liverpool and her long term unemployed neighbour found a carrier bag with several thousand pounds in it. He kept it but was too afraid of spending the money in case people started asking questions about where he got it from.
 
I found a wallet on a bus in 1996, it had no identification in it, but it did have £85 in it. Handed it in to main police station in Sunderland, didn't trust the bus driver, but I did tell him I'd found it and was handing it in to the police.

One year later, now living in Edinburgh, I got a package from Sunderland. The wallet and the £85 sent to me by the police as no one claimed it.

I felt pretty good about doing the right thing that day.
 
If it's in a wallet or handbag or phone then I'd get in touch with the owner and give it to them cash an all, if it's blowin in the wind or in a big bag with $$ on it, it becomes mine.
 
I found a purse with about £70 in cash and a cheque for about £500 made payable to the person who lost the purse.
Managed to track down the owner and I got a £25 reward
 
Many years back when quite a few people were paid in cash, my step brother found a brown wage packet with about £100 in...
I say "found", he did have to climb a locked gate and break through a pretty heavy door to do so...

He was a bad lad :thumbsdow
 
I'm surprised by the folks who would keep the money, I get it for something small like a tenner or twenty but even then who knows that's not the persons last money until pay day.

Surely for anything bigger morals dictate it has to be handed in (to the police).. what if the shoe was on the other foot? Also giving to charity is good, but again I don't think thats your choice to make..
 
20 quid.

I know a guy who found a carrier bag stuffed full of money. He was walking down the street with a big grin on his face when two old dears came up and said they had lost their entire life savings. They were in a right state, in tears. Apparently they had finally been convinced to put it in a bank account rather than keep it at home.

He handed it over. Good lad :) I 'think' they gave him a fiver :)
 
If it was a wallet, bag or purse I'd either give it to the local police or if there was a phone number in it I'd contact the owner.

If it was just cash blowing in the street it's mine! A big wad of cash I'd also keep as mine but not spend it for a while incase any stories came out about an old dear losing it for example.
 
In a club, many years ago, I found a wallet with £150, a $100 bill and several wraps of coke or speed in it - it also had identification, but no address. I felt uneasy handing it in and implicating the owner, so a friend and I split the cash and ditched the wallet.

I've felt guilty for the last 20 years.
 
In a club, many years ago, I found a wallet with £150, a $100 bill and several wraps of coke or speed in it - it also had identification, but no address. I felt uneasy handing it in and implicating the owner, so a friend and I split the cash and ditched the wallet.

How was the coke? ;)
 
I found a small bag of weed on the shop floor once. Gave it to the two managers but I reckon they halved it between themselves (who can't argue with free weed?)

I've found the rare stray fiver or tenner but he most I've found was twenty quid in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester City Centre. And I've made a few quid sorting supermarket trolleys out but it's mostly been a quid at a time.
 
My mum found a purse a few years ago containing money. She handed the purse and all it's contents to the police, but when the owner came to claim it the money was gone.

Morale of the story is that you can't trust anyone these days... not even the police.

As others have said, I would return any wallet or purse to the owner if possible and make every effort to do this myself. Same goes if it was a mobile phone.

If it was a just bag of money with no possible means of identifying the owner..... hmmm, not sure. If I was confident is wasn't some kind of deliberate trap then, based on my mum's experience, I don't think I'd hand it in to the authorities.
 
A drunken me found $300 in $20 bills scattered on the ground outside a supermarket around 4am when I was working in the US one summer. Kept every penny and bought CDs and clothes and booze for me and my flatmates. I was a student at the time doing a minimum wage job and that was a small fortune to me. I felt no guilt, and still don't, even after reading this thread.
 
I spoke to a guy at work about this some time ago, just general chatting.

Say you found a case of money, let's say £50,000 or £100,000 type amount in £20 notes.

What would you do?
It's pretty obvious it's not going to be some poor male/female who is not going to be able to buy food for the week or pay the heating bill so the guilt is off for that side of things.

You could hand it in.

Or, just sit on it, for a year or more.

Just start spending the odd £20 here and there, just normal things, food shopping, etc.

One could assume that a LARGE amount of money like that, could well be money from someone with less that 100% legal correctness and not going to run to to police to report the loss.
 
Ever seen Shallow Grave? ;)
 
Ever seen Shallow Grave? ;)

Oh, I think if anyone else was involved then you would need to hand the money in.
I've found money 3 times in my life, every time handed it in, or contacted the person who lost it who came to pick it up.
And I've never had 1p as a reward from any of them.

I did the right thing morally, but having spent money phoning and my own time to get the money back to them each time, and only ever getting a thank you. I will admit, it has crossed my mind more than once, just why I bothered.
 
In a club, many years ago, I found a wallet with £150, a $100 bill and several wraps of coke or speed in it - it also had identification, but no address. I felt uneasy handing it in and implicating the owner, so a friend and I split the cash and ditched the wallet.

I've felt guilty for the last 20 years.
Do you want to know about guilt? When I was 12, I bought an Airfix model and some paint in Woolies. The total came to just over 4 quid, I gave the girl behind the counter £5. She must have thought I gave her a tenner because she gave me £5.80 in change. I kept quiet and got out of there. My cousin worked in the same store and I was at his house when he got back from work. The first thing he said was a girl at work got the sack, my aunt asked why and he said because her till came up £5 short and they sacked her on the spot. I asked where she worked, he said in the hobbies and models section. Ever since then I've always owned up to any mishaps with change.
 

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